Crazy Situations

Hey all!

So I've officially completed my first week serving in English. It's been so much better than I was anticipating. Being in the Spanish program, we tend to come up with some prejudices against the English program. Thus, I pretty much thought I was going to hate my life serving in English. But it's been so great. Sister Lotulelei is an amazing missionary and we have a great time together. The ward has been so welcoming and friendly and I love them just as much as the Concourse ward. The work is pretty similar and I still speak Spanish quite often because it's hard not to run into Spanish speaking people in the Bronx.

Just like any other ward, there are definitely some crazy people in this ward. This one less active lady we visited one of my first days told us probably 25 times about how she lives alone and is usually alone at home so she just sits around her house without clothes on and how right before we came over she didn't have anything on (and was only covered then by a bathrobe). So that was a little awkward and not exactly something that I was ever expecting to happen on my mission.

I'm pretty sure that I also just attract crazy situations. I feel like all the psycho weird things usually happen to me. The other day we get a phone call from our district leader and he was with this guy who claims he met Sister Barker and I at the store and wants to learn more about the church. Neither of us have any recollection of this guy but he lives in my new area so we go over to visit him the other day. Our district leader had mentioned that we might want to bring a guy with us if we go over there but he didn't make it seem like a huge deal and we couldn't find anyone to come with us. So we decided to go over and get his phone number and set up another time to meet with him because all we had was his address. So we go over and talk to him and he's like a forty year old guy and we think he might have some mental disabilities because he kind of saying some weird stuff but nothing that was super creeping us out. But when we left we decided that it would be better just to have the elders go visit him. So later than night, we start getting phone calls from a private number. We don't answer and two hours later we have 14 missed calls and 14 messages from this private number. We start listening to them and it's this guy and he's telling us all about how he loves me and how he won't be able to come to church because his mom won't let him but that he just wants me to know that he loves me. Super weird but also we were pretty much rolling on the floor laughing. Clearly, we will never be visiting him ever again and President Morgan told us how to block his number so he won't be able to contact us anymore. But I guess if I never find anyone who wants to marry me, I can always come back to the Bronx and find one of my admirers here. ;)

Besides the crazies that we run into, things are going wonderfully. I hope you all have a wonderful Easter and take the time to reflect on all that Jesus has done for you.

Lots of love,

Hermana Parkin

Big Changes

This week has been crazy! We found so many potential investigators and two of them, Elizabeth and Jnett, have met with missionaries before and use to come to church often. Jnett used to go in the D.R. like 12 years ago but she still remembers some of the hymns and stuff. She's so great!! Elizabeth is friends with a member from our ward and also used to go to church in Arizona. She is amazing. She came to church on Sunday and was so excited about everything. She's been reading the Book of Mormon and marking up things she has questions about. We decided to baptize her this Saturday. I know that sound ridiculous but it was a spiritual prompting. So we asked her to be baptized and she started crying. She was SO excited and she said that she felt a really warm feeling inside her so we talked about how that's the Holy Ghost. Because she had only been to church once in our ward, we had to have the bishop approve the baptism. He had a little interview with her and found out that she has been having sexual relations with her boyfriend. We haven't taught her the law of chastity yet so that was news to us. So therefore, no baptism on Saturday. However, I still think it was really good that we asked her because now she has a really huge desire to get baptized and she knows what the spirit feels like so I think that will help her start following the commandments.

We live with two sisters that serve in the Kingsbridge English ward, Sister Lotulelei and Sister Beatty. Sister Beatty has been really sick. She got her appendix out a week and a half ago but she was still throwing up a lot and stuff. The doctors couldn't figure out what the problems was and the sisters had been unable to work in their area for about 10 days because when they weren't at the hospital, they were staying at the mission home. President Morgan decided that it would be best to send her home and get things figured out and then have her come back when she was better. I got a phone call from one of the assistants on Tuesday night and they let me know that I was getting emergency transferred to serve the rest of this transfer in the English ward with Sister Lotulelei. I was pretty shocked and sad that I had to leave Sister Barker and Sister Skinner and also that I had to leave the Concourse ward without any warning after I had served there for 6 months. But Sister Lotulelei have lived together since I got here, minus the cycle Sister Barker and I lived alone, so we're already friends and she's a great missionary. I'm excited to be working with her. The few people that I have met in the ward are really welcoming and I already know my new district because I'm staying in the same zone. Plus the move was really easy because I just had to change bedrooms. It feels like I'm kind of on vacation though. All of the sudden, I understand every single word of what people are saying. It's weird. President Morgan promised me that I would go back to the Spanish program next transfer so I'll only be serving here for about 4 weeks and then we'll see what other changes lie ahead. I still have a lot of opportunities to use my Spanish though, which is good. We knocked a few doors yesterday and about half of them were Spanish. So even though I'm really sad that I finally got kicked out of Concourse and I have to leave two companions that became my best friends, I'm excited for the change and I know that Sister Lotulelei and I will be just as good of friends and we'll be able to learn a lot from each other and do a lot of good work.

Hope you all are well!

Love,

Hermana Parkin (I refuse to get an English name tag....)

Hermana Barker, Hermana Skinner and Hermana Parkin

Sleep Deprivation

Not too much to tell this week so I'm going to keep it short so that I can go home and take a nap before p-day ends...

Hermana Skinner, Hermana Barker and I are doing great. We're basically like three best friends walking around all the time. It's good times, which I'm really grateful for because I was worried about being with two companions. But they're awesome missionaries and are going to do awesome things.

We went into Manhattan today. We went down to the 9/11 Memorial. It was really cool to see that. I feel weird putting the word cool because it was really sad but the memorial was really pretty and I do think it's cool that they have such an awesome memorial for all of the people that were so greatly affected by that day. The new World Trade Center buildings are pretty awesome looking as well. Then we went into Chinatown, which I still pretty much hate because there are too many people walking around and too many drug seller types that want you to follow them around so you can buy fake designer things for too much money and feel like the cops are going to come and get you as you walk into a secret alleyway to do your drug deal for a fake Prada bag. Then we went to Times Square for 5 minutes and ate at Shake Shack, which is this pretty delicious but very much over priced burger place. We did run into some members of the church in Chinatown so that was cool. I like when people recognize me as a LDS missionary. It makes me feel kind of like a rock star. But a rock star that doesn't do drugs or have 12 boyfriends or walk around with bodyguards. I mean, I guess I pretty much walk around with God though and I'd say he's the best bodyguard around. (Yep, that was a cheesy line. We'll just blame it on the fact that I'm soooo tired.)

The work is still going well. I have a feeling I'll be leaving the Bronx soon and I'm really sad about that. I actually have no idea if I will but by the time the end of this transfer comes around, I'll be like a week away from finishing half of my mission. So it's probably about time I go somewhere else. But I really don't want to leave the ward or my companions. However, I'll go where ever the Lord needs me.

Thanks for all of your love and support!

Love you all!

Hermana Parkin

Newness

This week has been a week of changes. First we had to move apartments because we received more Elder companionship's and they didn't have a place to live. So we moved back in with the English sisters in the apartment they moved into about 7 weeks ago. It's a really nice apartment but it's going to be interesting having 5 girls living in an apartment with one shower. The stinkiest part is that we now live even farther away from both the church and our area. But we got rid of our mice and cockroach problems and we live closer to a grocery store and  Target so I'm not going to complain too much.

Sister Barker and I also got our new companion today. Her name is Hermana Skinner. She is so cute! We've only know her for like half a second but she already fits really well into our companionship. Fun fact: She read my blog before her mission! There are actual real people that read this thing! Good to know I'm not wasting my breath...or my finger energy. So we're excited to be working with her and training her and loving her. It will be interesting being in a trio but it's going to be great and we're going to do amazing thing together. For example, we can now enter a house whenever we want because we automatically have the third girl that is supposed to be with us if there are no lady's in the home. Yay! haha

Hermano Feliz got baptized on Saturday and it was so great! He is just the cutest little older man ever. He said he felt like a new person after the baptism and he stood up and told everyone how grateful he was to them because he feels like he's gained a new family by getting baptized. It was so great! He's probably going to be a bishop or something one day because that's how awesome he is.

Bethany, who very sadly hasn't been to church since she got confirmed, came to church on Sunday! It was the best thing ever! I almost cried of joy to see her there. I guess there have been a lot of family problems, like they got evicted from their apartment and stuff but I think it's sort of a blessing in disguise because now they are living with their grandma so she can come to church with her. She said she really missed church so I hope that she's able to keep coming because I've been really missing her there.

Hope you are all doing well! Love you all lots!

Hermana Parkin