I Scored!

Hello!

Yesterday we got up at 4:30 so that we could go to a mission conference with Elder Bruce A. Carlson of the 70. It was basically all day long and it was so awesome. He talked to us about consecration and santification and helped us understand more about those things and how we can become more consecrated. He answered so many of the things I have been wondering about it was really special.

We had a really cool opportunity with Facebook the other day. Our investigator Andrelis has been in New York for the past week and so we havn't been able to go and teach her. But the other day, we found her on Facebook and have been able to teach her through that. It's been so cool because it's been a great way to keep making sure that she's progressing while we can't go visit her in person. I'm excited to have more opportunities like this and to keep seeing the benefits of using Facebook so that I actually have the desire to use it more.

Funny little story. Since a lot of hispanics love soccer, we have a soccer night every Friday where we play soccer and invite our invsetigators and everyone else as a way to find new investigators and help our current investigators make some friends in the ward. Each week I get a little bit more brave to kick the ball but mostly I just hang back because I'm terrible at soccer. Well this Friday, there was a point in the game where I somehow all of the sudden had the ball in front of me. I started to kick it down the field and miracuously kicked it past two of the other teams players and into the goal. It was awesome! But then after that happened, everyone started thinking that I actually knew how to play soccer and they would try to pass it to me and I would miss it and look like a fool. haha But at least I can say I made one goal!

I hope you all have a great week!

Love,

Hermana Parkin

Quick Email

Quick email this week because we're still in Manhattan (we went to the temple! it was so great!) and have a two hour ride back to Danbury...

We have another baptismal date! Sister Wankier and her companion before me started teaching Andrelis, a young Dominican girl. She has family that are members of the church and she's super interested. But she moved and we couldn't find her for the whole first month I was here. But then last week, we got in contact with her again and she's progressing super fast. She recognizes how much the gospel was helping her when she was being taught a few months ago. She read the first 17 chapters of Nephi in like 3 days. And she accepted a baptismal date for October 27. She's so awesome and we're so excited to be teaching her. It's amazing all the blessings that we've been receiving as we strive to become more consecrated and more like Christ.

I hope you all have a great week. I love you all!

Love,

Hermana Parkin

Big Baptism Weekend

Well the big news for the week is that I'm officially one of the missionaries using online proselyting. All of the zone leaders and sister training leaders had a big training meeting about how to use it on Friday and on Saturday we went out and started to use Facebook. We don't have iPads or iPhones yet and probably won't have them until mid-October so right now we're not using it as much as we will be in the future because we have to use the computers in the Family History Library in Newtown to get on. But it's basically the weirdest thing ever. President almost sent a missionary home for using Facebook and now it's just okay to go on whenever. I can't even explain how weird it is. President has asked us to use our normal Facebook accounts from before our mission, but we have to clean everything up that doesn't relate to our calling as a missionary so right now we're just going through everything we've ever posted in the last 6+ years and hiding or deleting it. It's taking forever. So until I can get everything cleaned up, I won't actually be accepting friend requests from mission people and using it for proselyting. But we are absolutely not allowed to talk to any family or friends through Facebook so unless your not a member of the church and you have questions about the church, please don't try to message me or chat me. I won't answer back. But know that I still love you anyways.=)

 

Also the other really big news is that Orquidia, Chelsea, Hansel and Jose all got baptized this Sunday!! It was literally the best baptism I've ever been to. We had a family getting baptized and a man who's been waiting months to be able to get baptized. They were all so prepared and so excited and it was the most spiritual baptism I've ever been in. I was crying basically the whole time. President Morgan came and he talked to us afterwards and told us how spiritual of an experience it was and how this was a blessing because of our efforts to become consecrated. I'm just so excited for each one of these four people. They are going to add so much to the branch and they are going to be able to share their testimony with so many other people to help other accept the gospel of Jesus Christ as well. It's the coolest!!!

 

I went on an exchange yesterday in Newburgh, NY, which happens to be like the number 9 murder capital in the world. Sisters aren't allowed in the actually city of Newburgh, just the cities surrounding it. But the cities surrounding are pretty ghetto too. We taught lots of people in trailer parks. But it was cool. A new experience to write down in my journal. I'm glad I didn't get shot or anything while I was there. I mean I thought I would be safe from that after leaving the Bronx but I guess not.

 

I hope you are all doing well!

Love,

Hermana Parkin

Obedience Brings Blessings

So on Friday, we had mission leadership council and President asked us to have interviews with all of the missionaries we are leaders for and talk to them about the missions goal to become consecrated. Because I don't know if I've told you this but President Morgan in the zone conference we had last transfer, asked us to start becoming more consecrated missionaries and that if we did that, we would have a blessing of a baptism in September. So Sister Wankier and I have been working really hard to be just a little bit better each day and it's awesome. We see so many awesome blessings every single day. But there are a lot of missionaries that are stressing out about this (as I previously was doing because consecration is huge and until I realized that I can take it step by step, all I thought was, there's no way I can do that.) So yesterday I drove around the entire upstate part of the mission doing interviews with the sisters that I am a sister training leader for. I basically had no idea what I was doing because normally just the district leader gives interviews but they went well. It's hard and sad though because so many missionaries are focusing on the September baptism and trying to figure out who they can baptize in September and they're not even thinking about becoming consecrated. So I'm glad that I had figured things out personally (after a month of not having any idea at all what I was going to do to become consecrated) because then I was able to share with them my own experiences and how the September baptism will come as a blessing of our efforts to become consecrated. Hopefully I helped them a little bit to catch on to what Presidents vision for the mission is. But basically being a leader is hard and I'm not sure what I'm doing most of the time but I'm just praying that something good will come out of my mouth that will help the other missionaries I'm talking to.

Also in Mission Leadership Council, President Morgan announced that our mission is officially a mission using online proselyting. He has received all the training for how the church is going to do online proselyting and the mission is approved to start using it. The zone leaders and sister training leaders will be the first missionaries to start using online proselyting and to get mini iPads and we will be giving all of the other missionaries training on that. So since I'm a sister training leader, that mean I will be one of the first missionaries to start using online proselyting. I haven't decided how I feel about it yet though. I know that it's inspired of God and it's going to be a huge blessing. But it's also going to be a huge responsibility. It's going to be one more thing that as leaders, we have to make sure others aren't abusing. We should be receiving the training this Friday from President Morgan and then we'll have the go to start using online proselyting. It's crazy! I didn't really think we would get to this point while I was still on my mission. But every missionary in the mission is expected to have a missionary Facebook page by December so this is going to be in full swing fast. I don't really know much more than that but I should be finding out more on Friday. It's cool though because I know this is another blessing that the mission is receiving because of our efforts to become consecrated. If the Lord didn't trust us, we wouldn't be one of the first missions to have this ability.

Danbury is still the greatest. I love it just as much as anywhere else that I've served. I really just want to stay here with Sister Wankier next transfer but I'm afraid that she'll go to a different area so that I have a companion who is also a sister training leader. We'll see what happens though.

I hope you are all doing well! The mission is the best and I'm so glad to be here!

Love,

Hermana Parkin

                                    Sister Wankier and Sister Parkin