August 20, 2012

hellowwwww!!!!! hahahah so this week not a whole lot happened. Obviously it was a great week but still no baptism! It's hard cuz now my comp is leaving and now it won't be the same with them but I hope they can learn to trust my new comp and that we can get a baptism! I want this for them so bad! Anyways it sounds like everything is going great! I just sent off a letter to you and to lolo because i was practicing my spanish so you will see I guess! Also I sent my memory card and I hope that it gets there safe because there was no way that I could transfer my pictures to anything unless I used up all of my pday email time doing so... but I would rather write you guys so lets just hope and pray! Also I sent a little post card so I hope that you like it. It was cool to talk to you guys back and forth a little bit. That's so awesome that Kizzy is here playing volleyball! I have no idea where she would be. Probably on the rich tourist beach that I will never see in my time here because missionaries are not allowed and no one is serving in that area. Today was so much fun! We had a picnic as the 4 of us in my district and then we played football and frisbee! It was so hot and I wanted to jump into the lake! We were at lake Nicaragua but I decided I better not that I could probably wait 13 more months to do so! How fast the mission is going. This last change sped by. I hope that I like my new companion that I get this wednesday in the morning. Tonight we are having a huge family night with all of the members in my area because my comp is leaving most likely so it's a party for her. My zone leader ends his mission wednesday and thats kinda sad. I loved him, he was so great. He is from granada. Today we ran into a bunch of drunks at the beach and I was like pretending not to know spanish! That was hard. I was like almost answering the questions and stuff it was fun to think that I know this much language already. Sounds like stake conference was really good. Thank you sooo much for all the prayers. Seriously there are miracles in every day life we just need to look for them and realize that they are truely gifts. I feel the spirit is on my side helping me in every single lesson. The other day we found this house... which I didn't really ever want to go proselyting in because they have this crazy dog and I am scared of them now. haha so finally I took out my umbrella and started swinging and then we found a family! And as you know families are super important for us to contact and teach and all. President stresses it all the time! Anyways so we taught them and I found out she was actually baptized when she was 14 but doesn't remember anything about our church! Anyways so yeah that was cool. We are starting to teach them and hopefully they will progress. This next week will be a huge change for me so please keep me in your prayers and know that you are all in my prayers every day! I miss you all so much and I will see you in a very short 13 months! I took a video of the monkey and its screeching and stuff so funny. But I cant send it today but I hope you like my memory card and there is a video on that of me in the mtc when I knew like 5 spanish words it's hilarious to watch now a days. I love you and I am also glad that Tay is doing good. We write every week and he is sooo great. I cant wait for our block parties when I get home. and to sing when the ants go marching down to the ground! hahaha I think about that song a lot here because there are thousands of ants everywhere. I LOVE MY FAMILY!!!!! hasta next week. Amor, su hija hermana Parker

August 13, 2012

Mom and Dad!!!! Thanks so much for the emails. Dad, thanks for all the olympics updates. I took a picture so that I can read them all tonight! I really appreciate that. Did you guys have fun in Hawaii! Thank you for all of the prayers. Yes, Tay just wrote and said he's zone leader. Of course he's zone leader. He's the next Prophet! That man is my inspiration and there is nothing better than to be serving this mission together. This week was super great and we had 3 famililes preparing to come to the church with us... and guess what happened on Sunday!!!!??? A big fat 0 showed up. I was soooooooooo sad. I was so sad. hahaha but you know life goes on and we keep working. But here is the good news. 6 of our 9 converts came! Which is HUGE because they never come and we have been working hard to gain their confidence and help their faith more!!! So yeah, it has all been good. That's so awesome that that little girl got baptized. What a special little girl. The family that we are really close to having baptisms with... the Gonzalez family the little girl is 8 and in our lesson we asked if they believed in the Book of mormon and she raised her hand and said I sure do. I know this book is true and I love the prophet Nephi!!!!!! hahahahah I was smiling from ear to ear and I about started bawling just at that. She has such a strong testimony. She said why does God always answer my prayers so fast but hasn't answered my parents yet. hahaha and then we said how do you know your prayers have been answered and she said when I pray my heart pounds and pounds so fast and I feel so happy. Um... thats the cutest thing in the world huh!?!?!?!? gosh that just melted my heart. Heavenly father sure does love his little children. Well, I would love to send pictures but it seems this computer doesnt have a spot for my memory card so i think i will be sending this memory card home next week and then could you send it back. I dont need more than 50 and I am still fine right now so I won't be using the debit card yet. thanks so much for doing that for me. Are you all planning to come here when its done!!! wow, yes, I have been out for 4 months and guess what!!!! In september I only have a year left. This has flown by!!!! I cannot believe how fast it has gone. Nicaragua is so hot. I am finally having my first changes next wednesday so I will have a new companion but we are thinking that I will stay in this area. thanks for sending another package. I am sooooo blessed. Tay and I were talking about how blessed we are to be in this wonderful family. I hope more than anything that by us being out that our family is being blessed. Dad, are you liking school this year? and mom, are you sad that all the kids and dad are going back to school? I bet you are. Yes, the earthquake was cool... it has been raining SOOOOOO much here. Like sometimes it rains all day long. Yesterday we couldn't cross the street at this one street because it was literally a river. So we waited it out at the church and actually couldn't work for the last 3 hours of the night. hahahahah. I love this crazy country. its so weird though. EVERYTHING is different. Today I got my card that makes me a legal citizen here!!! I LIVE IN NICARAGUA!!!! so funny. I am really happy. its hard... everyday is hard. every day but I know this is helping me grow... I know im supposed to be here. I got a letter from Brittni Vawdrey and grandma Parker this week! Let her know thanks so much and I will write soon! I miss everyone. I love you guys!!!!!!! Until next week. Also, I love you!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! p.s. this church is true :)

August 10, 2012

Mother and father!!!! I enjoyed reading both of your emails and hearing a little bit about the olympics and hawaii. um... first and foremost!!!!!!!!! This week was fantastic in every single way. First, thurs night I received the package from family franco!!!!! THANK YOU SOOOOOO MUCH!!!! i have never been so happy to receive anything. it was better than christmas. I was so happy thanks so much. everything was perfect. I loved the sweets and the meds and the cds and the SHIRT!!!! goodness thanks so much i really appreciate it. and then nat sent that keychain that I LOVE!!!! thanks nat! And all of your letters and grandmas cd. thank you everyone. so guess what... on wednesday night the zone leader called me and was like you have an assignment... flip i about cried. then he said i had a presentation in our zone conference which was on friday... so i was sooooo scared. and it had to be for 20 minutes and NEVER do other people besides the zone leaders ever talk in zone conferences. they are the only ones that have lessons so i was freaking out. then i got so stressed that for the first time in the mission i broke down crying. i was just feeling like i couldnt do it. i was so stressed. then my comp came over to me and said hermana parker. you can do this. there is a reason it is you doing this and no one else. the savior believes in you. president of the mission believes in you. then all of a sudden i felt super calm and i felt like rocky or someone i was like on top of the world with all this confidence. it was such a great experience and guess what happened. friday passed and i did it and now its over and i am so proud of myself and i have grown a bit more. i know these moments only help me. it was scary. so then after that... i received the OTHER package... the first one you sent... with the card and mascara and sweets and stuff!!!!! WHAT!!!!! hahahahahahah two days in a row and i got 2 packages. thanks thanks thanks. i was soooo happy. thanks so much. thanks for the support i love it. and the photo album is so funny i love it thanks mom and dad. so then guess what... on friday night i was sitting planning for the next day with my comp and there was an earthquake!!!! an EARTHQUAKE!!!! it wasnt that bad and only lasted for a little bit it was so scary. i guess there were 2 that day but the first we were in granada so i never felt it. wow. but all is well and nothing else happened. also this week we are supposed to have our baptism with family gonzalez. all three of them. BUT they need to get married first!!! so we are working on them. but they came to church and things are definitely progressing with them. They are amazing. and i know they are nervous so we are working and working hard. This could be it. I want this for them more than anything!!!! So I am so glad you got to go to hawaii together. thats so great. i love how great your marriage is and i want the exact same thing for my future marriage. thanks for your example always. thats cool you met those missionaries and that you went on that awesome bike ride. how incredible. pray for bianca, josefa, and humberto. hopefully i can email with a few baptisms next week. spanish is coming along and i am learning to love love love. i just am so glad to be here with tay!!!! Thanks for everything. i hope you are having fun in Hawaii!!!!! until nicaragua!!! hahahaha really though you need to come! Love you both so much!!!! Thanks for everything!!! Love court

Courtney's MTC Companion-Sister Creed

July 30, 2012

Mom and Dad!!!! First, I was just laughing so hard when i read about dad eating all the huckleberries. funny because i was talking to an elder in my district today about how much i love huckleberries. dad and i are so alike its funny. but mom and josh, i heard you guys hit some jackpots and thats awesome. We will need to go when i get back!!! Don't worry dad, that didn't make me home sick. Its really hard to get homesick here because we constantly are thinking of what our investigators need. So dont worry you can tell me whatever. I like to hear what is going on over there in the us. Don't worry, the dog bite is fine and i made sure the dog had its shots but now i am a bit scared of them but i think thats good to be cautious. Ao... the family that had a date thought that the date was too soon so now we are pushing it back but then the lady, her sister got surgery on sunday so they went to the hospital with her so she couldnt go to church and so now its pushed back again!!! ANDD the thing that stinks is that they are not married so they need to get married before the baptism but we have been teaching them a lot and this week is the law of chastity so i hope it works out and they decide to be married. we have another family that is very interested as well... and they even came to church...BUT he is still married to someone in costa rica and just lives with this other lady and they have a baby. they are super pilas... which means smart. and they are super into what we are teaching but its going to be really hard. a lot of people are like that. so many people either are not married or they are but are not divorced so it creates problems. its hard as a missionary because its kind of heartbreaking. I had a true humbling experience this week. there is a recent convert that has been drinking a lot lately and he is very innactive and we were going to teach him and i keep saying to myself please dont let him be there I dont want to teach him I am scared of him. and then he was there. So I went in with kind of a bad attitude and then he went off and started crying and telling us he wants to repent but he feels so ashamed and all this stuff and i was like wooooahhhhh! I was so wrong and i repented that night because i knew that he needed us. We were able to help him and he is going to talk to president of our branch soon and see what he can do to clean up. His family is so cute i want them to be happy. so we had a great opportunity this week!!!!! Hermana payne who is a sister who went on a mission 6 years ago but her brother is in our mission and is our AP well she is in all of the preach my gospel videos. she was specially trained by the people who put together preach my gospel and she is in all the videos that every missionary watches. so taylor and everyone... she was able to come and we had a whole day with her. it was intense. it started at 8 and we were done at 5!!!! She talked and we did practices and then we just talked and talked and talked. it was on the holy ghost. the whole thing!!!! Because the holy ghost is soooooo important!!!! Just from that i grew so much and I learned how to be so much better when i teach! Such a great chance that we had to be able to go to that. and it was in english and we had to help translate for our comps!!!! which I think I did pretty well!!!!!!!!! We are learning and working soooo much. The work is so good though. I am growing. even from in the mtc i am so different. i got a letter from whit this week thanks so much whit!!!! i will be sending you a letter super soon so thanks!!!! Today was fun we watched tangled with our district. our district is awesaome!!!!! Ah so sister Franko is amazing!!!! S he was so sweet and I can't believe how much she is doing for our family. what a blessing. Thanks so much for the package i cant wait to get it and all the stuff from the family and yellowstone. And I am so glad jeff went with you guys to the cabin. and i hope Danielle is doing good. She has great potential. also!!!!!! Drowsy chaperone!!! That's the best play ever we will need to see lots when i get back!!!! Also mom, i am so glad that you and grandma got to go to lunch I pray for her every day and I am so happy to hear that. I know we are receiving many blessings. Tell her thanks for everythinhg. Also, thanks for the package!!!! I will look forward to getting it. No haven't received handwritten letters yet because our next zone conference isn't until like a week or 2 and that is when we get them. There are only 2 every 6 weeks soooo yeah!!! Tay sounds to be doing so good!!! LOVE YOU ALLL SOOOOOO MUCH!!!! hasta luego. Estoy feliz y todo esta bien. Estoy agradacido por mi familia y la oportunidad hacer servicio por nuestro padre celestial. LOVEEEE YOU!!!!

July 23, 2012

Mom and dad! Thanks for the emails. I enjoyed reading them both. First, today the zone leaders came to spend pday with us. it was fun, we played soccer and then we made pancakes together and played uno. then after uno they went to get a movie and we were just sitting there where we usually eat lunch and this dog (one that i see everyday cuz we always have lunch there) came up to me and just started growling, i didnt think anything of it because usually it chases all the ducks. so then 2 others came running around the corner and barking at me. one was this huge black one. i jumped up and just started screaming. the black one grabbed ahold of my leg and i just started kicking and i was freaking out. hahaha. anyways... long story short... i am ok!!!!!!!!! hahaha i was wearing sweats so it could have been a lot worse. i was really lucky. the man in the next house ran out and chained the dogs up and i have a hole in my sweats and a nice little gash but its not too bad. i got it all cleaned up and it is ok now. I guess now i can just laugh at it and try to be more careful. Dont worry though please because im ok, i just wanted to tell you the story. anyways for my package... just please send some kind of snack from the us. there is nothing good here. just music and if you can some pictures. thats all!!!! if not thats totally fine!!!! Ok so guess what!!!!! I SAW ANOTHER MONKEY this week!!!! Im sorry i havent gotten pictures of them, its because im always on the bus when i see them and we pass too fast for me to grab my camera. this one was a different kind though... it had a huge long tale and was a lot bigger than the last one. it was just walking about next to an old tire in the forest. hahaha no big deal. And guess what... thursday president of my branch called and said i had a talk sunday... so yeah i was a little stressed. then that same night the zone leader called and said you are in charge of the game in our meeting which was friday and it had to be in spanish in front of the whole zone. so that night i think i prayed like a thousand times. i was a bit stressed. but the game was a success and everyone had fun and then my talk yesterday was great and everyone UNDERSTOOD it. yes, and i was speaking in spanish!!!!! Goodnesss i was so happy. it was on family night. which was easy for me because i already have a huge testimony on it. were you able to go to the playmill and see a play!!!!! what play did you see if you were able to?!?!? thats so neat!!!! So thanks everyone for the letters, and thanks to dave and nat and fro and haley. I really appreciate it. I cannot believe how happy i get when i receive letters. and i got 12!!!! hahahahahah all the elders were laughing so hard. my district leader is like my favorite person on the mission. we are super good friends and i dont even know his language. hes a good support to me so its nice to have people like that. my zone leader and him are my very favorite latinos. they are so funny and we all like to play soccer so its always fun with them. I heard tay is District leader now. wow, that is so great!!!! his emails are always so nice to get, along with all of yours. how was yellowstone this year?!?!? Anyways... greatest news of all!!!!! Guess who is improving??!?!?!?!? yep, ME!!!!! so thursday and friday i dont even know what happened but i didnt even let me companion take over during the lesson. I seriously just taught all the lessons those days. My spanish was just shooting out of my mouth and i have no idea how that even happened. seriously though it was crazy. My comp announced it at the dinner table on friday night it was funny. But really i know that i still have a ton to improve on but that was a sign that i needed. that i really can do this. and i will. it was so fun just to talk and talk and talk... and in spanish. i know it will come and im excited for another week. so also on sunday we met a guy from LA and we started talking and i gave a lesson in english... but hes a scientologist and was sooooooo into believing in reincarnation and all of that stuff. seriously was soooo hard to teach him. but at the end was me asking him what do you have against reading the BOM?!?! i said you read all these other books about other religions but not the BOM and then he was silent and i was like listen, if you read this book i know for a fact that you can know the truth of all things but you need to read it and you need to be sincere about it. he promised he would read it and pray. he has a country home here and gave me his card for after the mission if we ever decide to come back!!!! WE watched 17 miracles yesterday and everyone cried. such a good movie. oh... and we found a baby scorpion in our house today!!! not fun at all!!! anyways. Hasta proximo lunes. Yo estrano y amo usted mucho. Con amor, Hermana Parker.