August 27, 2012

HEY!!!!! ok, so first, dad. Wow I felt the spirit so strong during your email. Thanks for all that you shared with me. I know that you gave a good talk because you are a great man and the spirit is with you. It was crazy cause that scripture you gave me, I wrote that when I was in the mtc in the front of my triple with a picture of taylor and I!!!!! So great. ok, so anyways mother. Thanks for your email too!!!! I cannot believe how spiritual and amazing both of my loving parents are. I sure do appreciate you both very very much! Thanks for all that you do. I cannot believe that Tay is leaving in a week! That went by so fast and he is going to love it! The mission is super tuanis! I love it here. we work soooooo hard and sometimes we are not successful but then we get up the next morning and we work even harder and work towards our new goals. Life is like that. Sometimes we cannot do everything that we have set our hearts and minds to do but we can't give up. We need to keep working and keep trying and that is when we grow and when we ´find ourselves´:)
Well, let me just tell you that your prayers are definitely being heard. The transition was great. It was super hard saying goodbye to my companion. We both cried and cried and cried for like the whole day the day before. But guess what! My companion is from arizona! Can you believe it! Yeah, she is American and this is her last 6 weeks here so once she leaves I will get another comp. At first I was super scared because um... hello, I need a latin comp because I am kind of american and I need to learn this language... but then right after Pres. Monestel gave this talk about how everything is inspired and how he knows we are with those that we need to be with and who we need to learn from! So yeah. We are having a lot of fun. Her name is hna Cottam and she is 23. We are working soooo hard. I have been setting higher goals for myself and we are just working like crazy. We set a date with the Gonzalez family for the 8 of september and they accepted it. They said they are basically ready... which they have never said before so I was like about to drop down and bawl right then. They are soooo great! Then we found this guy named Lester and he is 30 and we were like, hey we need you at the church, when are you going to come? And he was like what are you talking about. But we just got inspiration to say that and now he has a Book of Mormon and asked us to come back wednesday. He was asking so many questions I have never been SOOOO happy in a lesson before. I was like on the edge of my seat spitting out answers like crazy. It was soooo fun. Then the next day we contacted this lady who is a jehovah witness.... oooops! yeah, that went well... not! they are always so fun. She was shouting in my face that that book of yours does not exist. Jesus was the last prophet and so on. I was just smiling super big and just being nice about it. We finally got out of there. But we have been having lessons and contacting more than I ever have. And I feel more comfortable with all of it. I love to talk to these people. Thanks for all of the prayers! I feel soooo great and I am doing great! The work is hard... we walk and walk and walk in the heat. I told my comp I felt like a pioneer yesterday cuz we just walked everywhere. But just like the pioneers we are happy doing this work for our Savior. We are so blessed to be able to come here and work as His servant and be a representative of Him. My testimony has shot through the roof and I know that this is the Lord´s work.
oh.... hahahahha so yeah during changes Hna Monestel (wife of pres) was talking about families and then all of a sudden a picture of our family shot up on the screen and I was like... WHAT the!!!!!! soooo funny! Then a few more other missionaries pictures of families showed up. But ours was first and everyone was like wow! Yes, I know.... my fam is GORGEOUS! hahaha so funny.
soooooo this week more than ever I have found that baptisms are super successful but the thing that is the most important is just to love with all your heart and then the baptisms will come. We are working hard. One of the 70s gave a GREAT talk on missionary work yesterday. He is Pres of all Central America. His name is Pres Martino and he is from Texas. But we had a big kind of stake conference meeting. IT was so great. So proud to hear Josh was saying his prayers. What a great example. I love my family and I know i was sent to them for a reason. Tell everyone I say hi and not to worry about these people in Nicaragua! We are taking care of them! I love you all. Praying for you every day! Love you so much, hermana Parker