What Are You Thankful For?

Happy Thanksgiving everyone! It seems as though we'll be having a
rainy Thanksgiving here in the Bronx. I forgot how cold it gets here,
especially when we're walking around everywhere. But it's whatever,
it's worth it. For our celebration tomorrow, a family in the ward
invited us over for dinner and that's pretty much our plans. We can't
really do much as far as proselyting goes because people would hate us
if we interrupted their family gathering. But Thursdays are our weekly
planning days anyways so we're usually at home during the afternoon to
plan out the coming week.

You may have seen the pictures on Facebook but we had a really awesome
street contacting activity yesterday. I was lying in bed one night
thinking about something President Morgan had said to us. He was
talking about how tracting was effective back when he was a missionary
because people were really open to door to door salesman. But now the
times have changed so we have to start thinking outside of the box. So I
was trying to think outside the box and I thought "Hey Thanksgiving is
coming up so we should ask people what they're grateful for. But that
would be lame if we just asked them and then didn't do anything cool.
We should make a turkey. And then everyone can write what they're
grateful for on the feathers!" And then I got really excited. And then
I had to share my excitement with my companion and my roommates and
they all laughed at me and thought I was kind of crazy. But then they
slept on it and must of had really good dreams about how everyone
would love the turkey because when they woke up in the morning and
decided that we should do it. So we did! And it was awesome!! We got
to talk to a lot of people and it was an easy way to start talking to
them about the gospel. Plus it was cool to see what people are
grateful for. One person was grateful that they could still be
walking. Another was grateful that he wasn't homeless. Lots of people
said they were grateful for their family and for God, which made me
happy to know that so many people recognize how important those two

things are.

We also had a really super awesome FHE with a less active family, the
Reyes family, on Monday. They had planned on inviting another family
too so right after we got there, Rosa, the mom of the non-member
family showed up. We had a really great lesson about prayer and then
Rosa told us afterwards that she would like to meet with us again and
that she would like to come to church on Sunday. Rose left before we
did so we asked Hna. Reyes a little more about her. She said that she
had forgotten to invite Rosa and her family and that she just happened
to show up at the same time we were there. Which means that God just
really wanted us to meet Rosa or something. It was a miracle and I'm
super grateful!!

We also had a ward Thanksgiving activity last Friday and we finally
had normal church so we've been meeting a lot more of the members.
They are all super nice and I'm excited to be serving in their ward.

I hope you all have a wonderful Thanksgiving and get to enjoy time
with your family.

Love,
Hermana Parkin

Seeing Old Friends

Well I don't know that there's that much to share this week. I love
serving back in the Bronx! I haven't met too many of the members yet
because we had stake conference on Sunday but the ones I have met
are awesome. The area is really fun. We're in the northern part of the
Bronx so it's a lot different from my old area in the south Bronx. And
by really different I mean that it's just a little bit less ghetto but
still really ghetto. We're also lost a lot because we don't know any
of the buses in this area but it gets a little bit better everyday. At
the very least we can find our way home name, that's probably most
important so that we don't end up dying on the streets of the Bronx.
Sister Tirado, my new companion, is awesome. We get along really well
and it's always fun to be together. Plus our roommates are awesome so
we're just always having a party.

Stake Conference this past weekend was probably one of the best things
ever. There were really awesome messages. And the best part in my book
is that I'm serving back in the Westchester stake, which is the stake
all of my old wards are in except Danbury. So I got to see a lot of
the members from the Concourse and New Rochelle wards. It was so much
fun!

Also Manuel, one of the investigators we were working with in New
Rochelle, got baptized!! I'm so happy for him. And I talked to Maribel
and she is getting baptized at the end of December. She finally moved
out of the apartment she was sharing with her boyfriend and she really
wants to get baptized. I'm super happy for her too.

I think that's everything for this week. No crazy stories from the
Bronx yet but don't be surprised if there's some next week! :)

Love,
Hermana Parkin

Me and my new companion, Hermana Tirado

Back to the BRONX!!

Transfer calls are in and this sister missionary is super excited! Why? Because I'm going back to the city!!!! And not only back to the city, but back to the Bronx!! I'm going to the Olmstead ward, which is the east side of the Bronx so we meet in a different building and stuff than my old ward. But I'm still excited. I've been released as a Sister Training Leader and I'm re-opening up an area over there. They used to have two sister areas in that ward and they combined it into one like 6 months ago or something and now my companion and I will be opening the second one back up. So that means whitewashing again. My new companion is Sister Tirado. She's Mexican but I'm pretty sure she grew up in the states. I don't really know much about her and I've never met her but I've heard she's cool. But this means I'll probably be ending my mission in the Bronx, which also means I'll have spent more than half of my mission there! So crazy!

I am also sad to be leaving Danbury though so as always transfers are bittersweet. There were lots of tears on Sunday when Orquidia and Pamela found out that I was leaving. I'm going to miss them and lots of other people so much! Plus, I had a pretty amazing companion and once again, I don't get to spend very much time with her. Does this mean I'm one of those missionaries that no one can stand so they just have to keep sticking me with new people? Because it's pretty rare that I ever stay with one companion for more than 6 weeks...I hope it's the opposite and that God just thinks I can go be companions with whoever and it won't matter because we'll just get along and be friends. haha

It's officially FREEZING here. It kind of snowed yesterday but didn't stick. And it's just super cold and it makes me wonder why I thought it would be fun to end my mission back in the city without a car that has a heater. No actually I think that the Lord knew that I would much rather walk around the city in the freezing cold than the super humid, gross summer. So I'm counting this as a blessing.

We get iPads tomorrow. TOMORROW! It's so weird to think about I don't even know what else to say.

Well hopefully next week will be full of more stories from the crazies of the Bronx. I'm so excited to go back. I think everyone in the mission thinks I'm psycho that I love it there so much but people there are just awesome and there's always some crazy adventure happening. It's going to be the best!

Have a great week! Love you all!

Hermana Parkin

Busy, Busy, Busy

So this week has flown by! We've been so busy! On Friday we had the leadership meeting with the NY NY South missionaries. That was really good and I really enjoyed the presentation both of our mission presidents did about the Gospel of Jesus Christ. The Facebook presentations were a little weird and we're still trying to figure out how to make the best use of these tools but I know it will come with time and once we have the actual equipment, we'll be able to do a lot more.

We had two exchanges as well! I spent Saturday with Sister Westlund in Danbury English. That was a good exchange. I met one of the coolest families too! They are converts of like 10 years or so and they have stayed super active since the whole time they've been members. Their oldest daughter leaves on her mission in December. They're rock stars. Yesterday, I spent the day in Newburgh with Sister Lounsbury. Newburgh is like one of the highest murder capitals in the world. So that was legit. Sisters aren't allowed in the city though so we were safe. (Did I already tell you all that fun fact last time I went on an exchange in Newburgh? Maybe so...) That was a really great exchange as well. I love people able to go and serve with other sisters for a day so that I can have even more people to learn from. It makes life a little crazy but it's really good too.

We all thought we were going to die from TB this week. Pamela called us on Sunday and told us that she had TB so we all freaked out and thought we were all going to get TB and then we'd get sent home early. So anytime we cough or tired or anything, we comment about how we have TB. But she just told us today that she went to the doctor and she's was treated for TB when she was younger and so therefore she will always test positive for TB. Sister Morgan still might have us go get tested just to make sure but we're pretty positive that we're going to live.

Destrie had his baptism on Sunday! He asked me to give a talk about baptism and I basically had no idea what to say. But the baptism as a whole was really awesome! He's so solid and going to be an awesome member of the church!

I think that's all for now. I hope you all have a great week!

Love,

Hermana Parkin