Hurricane...No Big Deal

Hey Mom!

So I'm probably not going to send a group email this week. The libraries are all closed so everyone has to use the computers at the church so we don't have a lot of time. I was really hoping to send you some pictures but I'll just have to do it next week. Also, if there are parts of this you want to put on my blog, that's cool.

As far as the hurricane, things were actually just fine. We were just really bored mostly. Sunday nothing happened. Monday there was a little bit of wind in the morning and by the early afternoon, it was crazy windy. There wasn't very much rain though. I think the Bronx got the best of the hurricane because we didn't seem to have as many problems as other people. We didn't have any power outages or anything. We just didn't want to be at home anymore because as a missionary, there's not a lot to do sitting at home all day. Plus, because we live way far from our area, when the all clear went out, public transportation was still down so we still couldn't leave our apartment. It was great today when we could finally leave the house. I did make cake pops and they were delicious and I wrote a bunch of letters and we bonded as an apartment and that's about all we did. haha

I do really like my companion and my roommates. They are all really fun and we all get along really well. A normal day for me goes like this: "exercise" from 6:30-7, get ready from 7-8, personal study from 8-9, companionship study from 9-10, 10-11 training (for the first 12 weeks), 11-12 spanish study and then from 12:30-8:30 we have appointments or go tracting. It takes us a half an hour to get from our apartment to our area so we have to be done 30 minutes early to make it home by 9. We usually have a lot more appointments at night because more people are at home but we do have some investigators that are home in the afternoon, which is nice. 

I'm glad President Morgan kept you guys updated on the storm so that you knew I wasn't dead or anything.

Also, great news! We have a baptismal date! Tianabelle is going to get baptized on Nov 10. We still need to teach the commandments to her though and with the hurricane, it kind of put us behind. So hopefully we can still get her ready for that date. She is definitely ready, she just has to know the commandments before she can have the baptismal interview. But we're really excited because even if she isn't ready for the 10th, it will definitely be soon. yay!

There so many other things I want to tell you but the elders are standing here waiting for me to finish. I'll just have to make next weeks email super long.

Love ya tons!!!!

Superstorm Sandy Update...Accounted for and Safe

The following is the email we received from President Morgan this morning.

Dear Parents and Loved Ones,

After a long stormy night we are in one piece. Every missionary has reported in. Some have been without power during the early morning hours  - all are warm and dry. We will ask the missionaries to again stay in their apartments today while major clean up work is performed by cities and counties. As work groups are formed in communities we will join in the secondary clean up work.

I apologize for not communicating earlier. The mission home has been without power since 8:30 last night with two large trees down on power lines blocking our ability to leave. As soon as one of the trees was cut in half and moved, I was able to get out and find a place with power. 

At this time the sun is showing through the clouds and the winds and rain have calmed. There is a lot of debris on the roads and in yards .

Again - All the missionaries are accounted for and safe. They have sufficient food and water and will be able to resume activities by tomorrow which will include assisting in many clean up projects. If you have any questions, please call us or send emails. I will respond based on our power availability.

Tom Morgan

Hurricane Sandy Update

The following was sent to our family this morning from President Morgan. Many of you have asked about Hermana Parkin and how the hurricane is effecting her area and her safety. This is just a small part of the email we received. But it will give you a sense of what the mission has done to prepare the missionaries for the hurricane. It is also a relief to know the missionaries are safe.

From President Morgan....

We have asked our missionaries to hold tight in their apartments from 6:00 pm Sunday evening until the storm passes and we have issued an "all clear" announcement.

On Saturday October the 27^th all missionaries were instructed to prepare for the storm by acquiring three days worth of food supplies - in addition to what they already had on hand, refresh all water storage in accordance with mission water storage policy, test flashlights and assure a prudent supply of fresh batteries, having some cash on hand incase ATMs are down due to power outages and keeping cell phones fully charged while power is available. All companionships reported back as ready and compliant with instructions. We will carry out a “call report” protocol during the event to assess the safety and condition of each of our missionaries. Depending on internet availability, we will periodically update you as to the current status of the mission. We feel very prepared and our missionaries are very obedient. Please continue to pray for safety and welfare of everyone in the storm affected area.

Shaking an Apostles Hand

I've decided that I don't want to serve anywhere else in my entire mission except the Bronx. I just want to serve these people for the next 15 months (because as of tomorrow, I've been on my mission for three months. Crazy!). I don't think President Morgan would really be okay with that but a girl can dream right? I just love all the people here. Our investigators are awesome, even if sometimes they ignore us. But it's okay because even though our lives revolve around them, their lives don't revolve around us so sometimes it's just hard to set up appointments. The ward is also awesome. I actually know a lot of the ward so when I go to church, I don't feel really awkward because there are lots of people to talk to and say hi to and introduce investigators to.

This past Sunday was a huge miracle. We had been struggling to get a hold of basically all of our investigators so we were feeling pretty down. We didn't think any of them would come to church because they hadn't been calling us back. But when we got there, two of our investigators were there and a less active that we ran into a few weeks ago. It was so awesome!! I know the Lord was blessing us for all of the hard work we had been trying to do and I'm so grateful for that blessing.

Elder Christofferson came on Saturday so we all went to Scarsdale. He shook everyone's hand before the meeting started. We didn't really get to talk to him because there just isn't a lot of time for 150 missionaries to talk to one apostle. But it was still really special to even get to meet him for real because I didn't get to shake his hand when  we saw him at the Salt Lake Temple. He talked about how as missionaries we are supposed to teach repentance but what does that really mean? And how repentance means action and so everything we teach is basically teaching repentance because everything we teach is inviting them to change. He also talked about how we have to be converted to the doctrine of Christ ourselves and have to be willing to change ourselves if we really want to help others do the same thing. It something that seems so basic but it really made me think more about what aspects of my life I need to change and improve on. He also talked about the importance of the Sacrament and how we should be spending the whole week preparing to take the sacrament so that when Sunday comes, we know the things that we need to be repenting of and the things that we need to try to change for the coming week. It was fabulous and I just love that man.

We had interviews with President Morgan yesterday. It was so great to talk to him one on one. I feel so lucky to have such an amazing man as a mission president. He is just a great example of Christlike qualities. He also talked to us about what the new missionary age would mean for our mission and for missionaries in general. Since there has been so many applications since the announcement, the MTC had changed their program and if you serve in English, you go to the MTC for 10 days. If there isn't any room for you in the MTC, you just go strait to the field. If you serve Spanish, you are only there for 6 weeks. But about a year ago, the general authorities started a 12 week in-field training, which is basically everything I learned in the MTC. So that was clearly inspired because now those who come strait to the field still have training/ He also said that the domestic missions (the U.S. and Canada) will be receiving the initial surge of new missionaries. Which means that in the next three to nine months, our mission will be receiving about an extra 100 missionaries. Which therefore means that we will all be training, which means that I'm sort of freaking out because I don't even know anything and I might be training in January. But it's going to be so awesome to have so many new and excited new missionaries.

Everything else is going really well! I still love everything and I love all of you!

No Longer a Picky Eater!

***In this post, Hermana Parkin makes a reference to Liz and Dev. For those who don't know, Liz and Dev are one of Hermana Parkins's aunt and uncle. They are super close so it didn't suprise me when she said she found a family that reminded her so much of them.***

Hey!!

I don't really have a ton of cool stories today but rather some random facts about life here in the Bronx.

For those of you who claim I'm a picky eater, you should see what I eat here. Not only have I eaten tuna many a times, something that I think is super gross, I've also eaten eggs, something I think is even grosser than tuna. I also ate at a pescaria the other day, which basically translates to fish store. You just go in and they have a bunch of raw fish, you tell them which fish you want and which vegetables and they throw it all together with some spices and steam it. I got shrimp so it wasn't too bad. But the weirdest thing I've eaten so far is cow stomach. It actually wasn't too bad though. Just a little too chewy for my taste.

I found out the other day that 35% of the Concourse ward is active. Yes, that's right, active. That means most of our ward is inactive. Which means there has been a lot of missionaries just baptizing the heck out of everyone out here and not making the effort of helping investigators find real conversion. As a zone, and really as a whole mission, we are focusing on members and getting members to help us with missionary work. If the members get involved, the convert has friends in the ward once they are baptized and then they already have a support system to help them through this transition. We're also focusing on member referrals, which is great because I don't really love street contacting or door knocking so much.

I bore my testimony at church this past Sunday. I debated about whether I would do it for a long time, but finally I decided that I would be disappointed in myself if I didn't. I'm pretty sure I sounded like I five year old with my limited Spanish, but it's okay because luckily the ward thinks my Spanish abilities are cute. For those who've asked, I do not speak Spanish all the time. All of our district and zone meetings are in English and a lot of the members speak both. Sister Pipes and I try hard to speak Spanish whenever we can, but most of the time I end up speaking Spanglish and just saying half of my conversation in English and half in Spanish. We always teach in Spanish though and most of the members, even if they speak English, prefer speaking Spanish. So usually the only time I use English is when I'm talking with other missionaries.

We found out today that Elder Christofferson is coming to talk to us on Saturday morning so we're all pretty excited about that. We also have a big ward activity called Dia de Naciones (Day of Nations) on Saturday. Since we have so many different cultures in our ward, everyone from their native country is going to do a dance from that country and bring food from that country. They told the missionaries we had to be involved. Since we're missionaries though, we're going to try to do something spiritual so that it wasn't completely doing nothing towards missionary work.

Tianabel came to FHE at a members house on Monday. It was so awesome for her because the family are going to be great fellowshippers. The family actually reminds me a lot of Liz and Dev's family, except for their Dominican. They have a little boy who is four and a little one year old son. Ruth, the mom, decorated their apartment all cute and she's all cute and nice and Tommy, the dad, is all cool and funny. It was sort of weird how similar the two families are. But clearly, this means that they are one of my favorite families.

Things are still going really well. Some of our investigators are having some struggles and others we just struggle to find times  that we can all be available. But I know that if we have faith, everything will work out great.

Sorry if you've written me and I haven't gotten back to you yet! I'm trying hard to write back but it's also hard to find time.

Love you all!

Hermana Parkin

I Ate a Tuna Fish Sandwhich!

So aparently my health problems aren't over even though I'm out of the MTC. Last Sunday, I twisted my ankle going down a flight of stairs that had this weird triangle step where the stairs turned. It hurt SO bad. But I'm alive and still in commission even though sometimes it doesn't feel so good. I guess this just means that Satan really doesn't want me to do missionary work or something right? Either that, or I'm just one big continual clumsy health problem. haha

 

So the bronx has all these bodega's everywhere, which are little corner stores sort of like the stores at gas stations. Most of them sell food and the first time we went to one, I was pretty aprehensive because all I could think of was disgusting 7-11 hot dogs. But you get in there, and there's like a real kitchen with 4 domincan ladies cooking up a full on meal. It's crazy! But delicious. So if you ever decide to come visit the bronx, make sure you eat at one of the bodegas. In other food related new, I ate a tuna fish sandwhich (which you may not know makes me want to barf) and I didn't die. I just drank a lot of juice and ate a lot of toastadas in between bits. We get fed a lot of toastadas out here. It's a big dominican thing. They basically take platanos, which are these huge green banana things, and cute them up, fry them, smash them, and then fry them again. They're sort of like french fries, but domincan version. And maybe healthier because it's sort of a banana? Or maybe I just want to tell myself they're healthier.

 

I think I mentioned Tianabel last week. She is still super awesome! We were a little bit worried for a minute because she canceled an appointment we had on Friday and she told us she wouldn't be able to come to conference. But then she texted us on Sunday during the morning session and told us she was watching it at home and was really enjoying it. I guess she just hadn't been feeling good. So we met up with her for an appointment on Monday and it went super well. Her daughter and her mom sat in on the lesson and the spirit was so strong. We have another appointment with her tomorrow and we're going to try to set a real baptismal date. Her daughter told us that she wants to get baptized though, which was super cute, but we told her she would have to wait two years until she was 8. Tianabel also told me that my Spanish has improved a lot in a week, which made me feel super awesome even though I still have a ton to learn.

 

I did attempt to give my first baptismal commitment the other day though. We have another investigator, Eledino, who is the husband of a convert of one year. He is also really awesome but doesn't want to commit yet. So we're going to keep working with him and try to figure out what his concerns are. He's really quiet so it's been hard for us to fully know what he needs. We have an awesome member coming to our lessons with him though and I think that has helped us a lot.

 

Conference was awesome! I'm still in shock that they changed the mission ages! That's so cool though! I think it's really going to be a blessing for everyone. We went to the church for all the session of conference but unfortunatly the connection there wasn't super awesome. It worked all of Sunday, which was a blessing but on Saturday there were a few parts that cut out in the first session and I basically didn't see any of the second session. We got there about an hour late because the appointment we had in between the sessions went long and then once we got there, the connection broke for the other hour. So I only saw probably 5 minutes of that session. I'm excited to read the talks in the Ensign next month though.

 

I've discovered now that I'm friends with everyone that we have an awesome zone and an especially awesome district. We actually all see each other more than I thought because my whole district serves in the same ward (there are 8 of us total) a lot of members invite all eight of us over for dinner together. They are all really good missionaries and I'm really glad I have the opportunity to serve with them and learn from them.

 

Love you all a ton! Thanks for your support!!

Hermana Parkin

I love being in the Bronx!

I LOVE being a missionary! This first week in New York has been so awesome. Everyone told me that the first week would be awful and I'd cry myself to sleep every night, but I totally don't feel like that at all. I love the Bronx, I love the people, I love my companion, I love the other missionaries, I love everything!!

So much has happened in the past seven day, but here are some memorable moments:

We actually have quite a few investigators right now. The real problem is seeing them as often as we like because a lot of the time, we set up appointments but then they aren't home when we get there. Even if we called that day to remind them. It's kind of stinky but we just have to be persistent. Anyways, one of our investigators, Tianabel is super awesome. She was a media reference and has a member friend back in the Dominican Republic. She's 22 years old and has a 6 year old daughter. H. Pipes had taught her once before I got here and we went back on Friday and it was the best. It was the first lesson (out of like two or three others that week) that I felt comfortable talking, so that was really good. Plus she is just so excited to learn about the gospel. I'm really excited to keep teaching her. She came to church on Sunday and H. Pipes had to talk in Sacrament and she plays the piano for the primary so I was in charge of being with Tianabel, which freaked me out at first because my Spanish still needs a lot of work but it went so well. At the end of Sunday School she asked for a Gospel Principles book so she could read that and then at the end of Relief Society she asked about how she could pay tithing. It was so cool! She is going to come to General Conference this weekend, which should be really great for her.

I guess 5th Sunday's out here are missionary Sundays. We have eight missionaries serving in our ward so we break up our ward boundaries into four areas, which means our area is kind of small. But since it's all apartments, there are still a ton of people. So this Sunday three missionaries talked, plus our ward mission leader. During correlation on Saturday, Fernando, the ward mission leader, who is also super awesome, told us that we needed to do a musical number too. Most of this conversation was in Spanish so I wasn't totally following all that was going on. All I know is that all of the sudden, I am being volunteered to participate in a musical number with four other elders. And then it goes from that to me singing the first verse as a solo, which I was not okay with. But then I gave in because it was the Christ like thing to do. So we sang "Teach Me to Walk in the Light" and I did the first verse as a solo, then the elders sang the second and we all sang the third. I actually wasn't super nervous, which is only because God probably knew how much I didn't want to do it because I was terrified but that I was doing it because that's what we do as missionaries. It went well though and apparently Latinos aren't always the best singers in the whole word because some of the hymns were pretty painful so even if I stunk, they probably wouldn't have cared.

I was a little surprised by how many Spanish speaking people live in the Bronx. I feel like everyone we talk to speaks Spanish, which is pretty cool. It's hard for me to tell everyone apart though. I'll see someone that I think is of African decent and then they start speaking Spanish so I think "Oh their from the DR" and then I find out their from Honduras. So I have a lot to learn about who's who because it really does matter. But everyone is super nice. When we contact or tract, almost everyone will talk to us and take our card. We've had very few people who flat out reject us or shut the door on us. Even though I know that most people will never meet with us, at least I don't feel completely rejected all the time. Our ward is pretty awesome too. People are always super willing to come to appointments with us. And everyone is super friendly, which is really great for the investigators we bring to church. Also, they feed us amazing food!! Everyone has been telling me that you usually gain wait up state and loose wait in the city but I don't know how true that is because I 'accidentally' eat a lot because the food they give us is so good. I guess it's good that we don't have dinner appointments every day. Plus it makes me feel a lot better that people are so nice about my broken Spanish. They really try to help me out and don't hate me when it takes me 3 times as long to say something.

We did some train contacting the other day and that was super fun actually. I was sort of nervous about it because I'm not usually someone who talks to other people on BART and stuff so I wasn't sure how it was going to go. But it was actually really fun. Hermana Pipes loves talking to people so she makes me feel more comfortable and we were able to get information from a few people. The thing that was hardest for me, because I was being selfish, was that pretty much everyone we talked to lived outside of our area. So we were basically just finding people for all the other missionaries and I was pretty bummed about this. But I tried to stay positive and just know that either way, I'm still doing good work and helping others come unto Christ even if I don't get to do the actual teaching. So yesterday we were able to be blessed in return for our efforts, because two other sets of missionaries called us and gave us info about people they had found. That was really cool and a good lesson for me to learn.

Today we're hanging out in Manhattan for a little bit. We're at the family history center at the Temple right now and earlier we went to the Metropolitan Museum with two of the elders in our district. It's been fun to be in the city for part of the day, but it's also sort of weird because it's so different from the Bronx. In the Bronx we stand out a lot in our skirts. Plus we're some of the only white people and I'm one of the only natural blondes so it feel like everyone notices us and knows that we don't really belong. Actually, at church, I am the only blonde one. So it's super different. In Manhattan, most people are dressed nice and what not. The only place people noticed us as being different was at the museum where Elder Anderson kept getting mistaken for a guide at the museum today, which was pretty entertaining. 

Things are going really well and I am loving everything! Miss you all and love you too!!

Love,

Hermana Parkin

A few MTC pics

                  Hermana Harris and Hermana Parkin

                  Where in the world are we serving?

               Hermana Parkin, Hermana Seely, Hermana Duchene