Blessing Homes

This week has been a crazy one but so good!

On Wednesday, we met with our investigator Feliz, who is probably the most ready person in the whole world to get baptized. Both times he has come to church, he has corrected false doctrine that other members of the church say. It's great. So we extended a baptism date for March 2 and he accepted and we're so excited! Our ward really needs more priesthood members and he is just so great and we're really excited that he wants to take this step.

On Saturday we had a zone meeting to apply some of the things we learned about when the members of the Church Missionary Department came to talk to us. This was super helpful because Sister Barker and I have really struggles to apply it. Brother Donaldson told us that when we knock doors, we should never tell them that we have a message to share but instead we should ask them if we can bless their home. Then the first thing we should teach them are the points under "How to Begin Teaching" in Preach My Gospel. We shouldn't just list off all the points though but let the spirit guide us. Then when we go back and start teaching the PMG lessons, we should be using the pamphlets that the church created after PMG was out and that we should be really simple and use the pictures in the pamphlets a lot. So we practiced all of this and Sister Barker and I were feeling a lot more comfortable about everything. Elder Hajje, one of the zone leaders, at the end of the meeting made a promise that if we would spend at least 10 minutes before the end of the day on Sunday tracting and putting what we practiced into use, then we would get a baptism. Sister Barker and I didn't have any time on Saturday to tract and we really didn't have any time on Sunday either. But we took his promise to heart and we started praying about where we should go tracting. The building that kept coming to my head is one of the more ghetto buildings and I really didn't want to go tract there. But when I asked Sister Barker where she thought we should go, she said the same street that I had been thinking so I knew we had to go to that building. We also usually start tracting at the top of the building and go down. But I kept thinking that we should start at the bottom. I asked Sister Barker and she said the bottom as well. When we got to the building we started knocking the first floor. There was one apartment that I was sure was the apartment we were supposed to be at. But the lady wouldn't open the door. Nor would anyone else. Before we finished that floor, Sister Barker said that we should go to the second floor. So we headed up there and the same thing happened. No one would answer. But Sister Barker said that we had to knock the last door on the floor so we knock and this kid opens the door but he doesn't really talk to us, he just walks away. He doesn't shut the door though and a minute later this lady comes out and I tell her that we're representatives of Christ and that the Holy Ghost has sent us here and that we would like to bless her home. And she lets us in. So we start talking and she's only lived in the U.S. for 2 years and when she was living in the D.R. the elders were visiting her and she went to church twice and she loved it. I was sitting there in shock that this was happening to us. Then I pretty much wanted to die of happiness when she asked if she could come to church with us this Sunday. It was so cool!!! We shared a few of the points in "How to Begin Teaching" then we said a prayer to bless her, her family and her home. Then when we had finished, we talked a little more and Sister Barker gave her a Book of Mormon because she left her other one in the D.R. And then I felt like I should ask her to be baptized. So I did. And she accepted. She's going to get baptized on March 16. It was such a powerful and amazing experience because it was all guided by the spirit. It's hard to even express how happy we are!

Yesterday, Sister Barker came down with the flu so we stayed home all day. It wasn't the funnest thing ever but I'm not complaining either. I mean who wouldn't want a nap every now and again. Plus I also got all caught up on the letters I needed to respond to and cleaned the house. All those things I always think I'm going to do on p-day but never actually get around to doing. Sister Barker is feeling a little better today. She felt well enough to come to the library and email and then the zone is going to watch 17 Miracles this afternoon and she wants to go to that so I think the entire day of sleeping helped her feel better.

I think those are the biggest and most exciting stories for the week. I hope you all had a great Valentine's Day!

Love you all!

Hermana Parkin

Hermana Parkin and Hermana Barker

They Think He Broke Up With Me

Hello all!!

This week had been pretty good. Sister Barker and I are working hard. She is seriously so great. I love her tons and tons.

The Zone Leaders have been taking each companionship out for lunch to get to know everyone better and find out how they're are doing in missionary life. So Sister Barker and I are thinking we're gonna be hanging out at Subway for an hour chatting and then getting back to work. But then what happened was that they took us to Little Italy in the Bronx and to this nice Italian restaurant. Then because it was kind of pricey, we shared food. But because of the food that we wanted it ended up that I shared with one of the elders and Sister Barker shared with the other one. So at this point Sister Barker and I are feeling like if we were in normal life this would be a date. But we're in missionary life and we have no feelings towards people of the opposite sex and so, we're just having a missionary lunch. So then we start talking about how life is going and Sister Barker and I have kind of been struggling a little bit to feel successful. So they start talking to us about how we can not feel like poop and stuff. And being typical Sister Parkin, I start crying and then I can't stop. So now to everyone else in the restaurant, we look like we're on a date and I just got broken up with. It was pretty great. Good thing it really wasn't a date nor will it ever be considered anything like a date. Nor would I even participate in such an activity as a missionary. But I'm just putting myself in the shoes of the other people in the restaurant and I'm sure they were making some incorrect assumptions. However, I am really grateful for the spiritual uplift the Zone Leaders were able to give us. We've been feeling significantly better about the work we've been doing since then.

We had a fabulous meeting with one of the less active we've been working with. I think I mentioned them in the past, Mario and Carmen. Mario is the super of his building and when we called he said he would be home but his wife wouldn't. But then when we got there, someone in the building needed his help so he was working and his wife was home. So we talked to her and we had such a spiritual moment. We just shared a simple scripture (Ether 12: 33-34) and it must have hit her pretty hard because she started telling us about because she's really sick with a bunch of different problems, she's been thinking about living with God again. She said she really wants to return to the temple and renew her covenants with God. So then she said that she would be coming to church on Sunday. It was so cool and we're really excited because they haven't been to church in like 7 years.

Hope you all have a Happy Valentine's Day!!

Love,

Hermana Parkin

Is The Whole World on Crack?

Hey all!

So training has been an absolutely wonderful experience. I've learned so much and I love Sister Barker to death. She is an amazing missionary and we have a lot of fun together. Plus we're both English majors so that makes life even better because she understands all my weird nerdyness. I'm excited to keep working with her and hope that we'll be together for all two transfers of her training, even though I've been in the Bronx for forever.

We have a potential investigator that we're really excited to work with. We were knocking this building because we were early for an appointment with a less active member. So this guys is standing in the hallway and he keeps yelling down the stairs "Jay! Jay! Where are you, man. Man, I'm tired. Where are you? Jay!" So we're by the elevator and I look at Sister Barker and I'm like "Sister, I don't really want to talk to that guy" and she goes "Good, me neither." So we push the elevator button and wait but it takes to long and then we hear, in Spanish, "Are you ladies church people?" And it's the guy. So we have to talk to him now. But then it went really well and he had a lot of faith and was really accepting of everything we talk about. So we're pretty stinking excited to go back and work with him. The downside? He might have a lot of drug problems. I mean it's pretty likely that he has a lot of drug problems. But he has a family so you would think that would lesson his chances of drug problems. But the fact that the entire time we talked to him, he would jump around from subject to subject and his eyes would randomly get droopy and some other weird body movements indicates drug use. I mean because I know so much about drug use and all, right? But the point it, we learned a lesson that day. Talk to the random creepers even if you're scared of them beating you up because maybe they could be your next baptism. =]

We also have a new investigator that we're super excited about. Her name is Ivan and she's a Catholic. Like hard core. She goes to church every Sunday and everything. But she met the elders and asked to have us come over. So we did and is was a great lesson. When we asked her to read the Book of Mormon and pray about it, she said that she would. And then when we asked if she would come to church with us, she said yes. She's really open and it's great because usually getting people to church is the hardest part. But we're going to go pick her up on Sunday and it's going to be great!

We had a really cool conference on Wednesday, which is why p-day got changed. Two brethren from the Missionary Headquarters came and taught only our zone and one other zone this sweet lesson about how to be better teachers. They are testing out this lesson to teach to all the other missionaries around the world. So our mission and two missions in Utah we're selected to try out this lesson. It's so cool! They taught us how to use the pamphlets in our teaching, which not only makes our lives easier but it also invites the spirit a lot. We're really excited to start using this way of teaching and I think it will help new missionaries a lot too because if they don't know the language very well they can read stuff from the pamphlets. 

That's about the most exciting news from this week. Love you guys all and hope you have a loving Valentines Day!

Hermana Parkin

The Next Mission Adventure

Hey all!!

So the big news for the week is that I'm a trainer now! President Morgan called me last Thursday and asked me to train one of the two new Spanish sisters and I about had a heart attack but said yes. Up until today I've basically just been a nervous wreck and was pretty convinced that I'm going to be the worst trainer on the whole planet and that my companion was going to hate me. Sister Alvarez kept telling me that I was crazy and that I was going to be a great trainer. I'm still not really sure about that but as soon as I met Sister Barker, I knew that we were going to have a great time together. She is so great. She's so ready to be here and to start working so I'm really excited to be with her. She is from South Jordan, UT. She's pretty terrified to be serving in the Bronx and she's convinced that she's going to get mugged. Which does make me laugh a little because that was the least of my worries when I got here. But I'm really excited to be working with her and hopefully I'll be able to do a good job training her. I'm just going to trust that the Lord will help me.

Having Sister Alvarez leave was hard because she's going home so I won't see her for at least a year. But luckily for me her family moved to Provo during her mission so we'll pretty much be able to be friends forever because I'm already planning on hanging out with her all the time when I go back to school. I'm really grateful to have had her as a companion. I learned so much in the short time that we served together.

We have a new investigator, Feliz, who is super awesome. He is friends with Tianabelle and he'd had read parts of the Book of Mormon before we even met. So he knows a lot about the church and we're really excited to work with him.

We're still working with a lot of less actives and it's slow going because a lot of them are hard to get a hold of. But it's been going good too.

Love you all lots!

Hermana Parkin

Hermana Parkin and Sister Alverez at M&M World.

I Learned the Hakka!

So sadly, Sister Alvarez and I still aren't working with a whole lot of investigators. At least not any that are progressing. But we have a few potentials that we are excited about and we're working with a TON of less actives. Which is actually probably better for this ward anyways. They really don't need a lot of new members. They just need the members they already have to come back to church. So we're keeping really busy and it's been really great work. This one less active couple is AMAZING. They have really strong testimonies and the husband was a bishop for 5 years. But there was a disagreement between him and the stake president like 7 years ago or something and he decided that he would take a break from church and come back when there was a new stake president. It's sad that disagreements like that push so many people away from the church. I really think we'll be able to help them come back to church. Some of the other less actives we're working with are a bit harder. There are a lot of people that have to work on Sundays so that's a huge obstacle to getting people to come back to church. But we're going to keep working hard to help them out.

It's already almost the end of another transfer! Sister Alvarez heads home next Wednesday, which I'm really sad about, and then I'll get a new companion. I also hit my 6 month mark this Friday. What the heck?!?!? How did 6 months already go by??

It is literally freezing out here. I've heard it's colder in Utah so I shouldn't complain. But I hate it! Why can't everywhere have weather like California where all you need to wear is a jacket. No gloves or hats or scarves required. I do manage to stay pretty warm though. I probably look crazy with the amount of clothing that I have on. But I don't care. The only part of me that I can never keep warm is my face. There's just no way to cover up your face. Unless you want to look like a robber or something and I don't think that's a really good combination when you're trying to do missionary work.

I pretty much can't think of anything else to tell you....OH! I learned how to do the Hakka the other day. One of our roommates, Sister Lotulelei is Tongan and she knows how to do it. So now I can be all cool like the people from New Zealand. Minus the part that I'm really not that good and I'm definitely not that intimidating. But it was still fun.

We also met the senior couple that is going to be serving in our ward. They are really nice and we're excited to have them here. They are going to be a great support for the ward.

Love you all!!!
Hermana Parkin

The Work is Picking Up a Bit

Hey Everyone!

There's not much to tell from this week. We had a really good sister's conference on Thursday and a really good training conference on Tuesday so that was really good and we learned some really good things. President Morgan has also changed the key indicators so we have some harder goals to reach each week but I think it is going to be really good.

We've been having some really awesome experiences with the ward leaders. They trust us and want us to help them so we're excited to do whatever we can to help them out.

We've postponed William and Solimari's baptism again for later in February. They just aren't sure about it yet and we don't want to push them.

The work is picking up a little bit, which is awesome. We've had a lot more appointments this week, so it's been really great.

Tianabelle is probably the best recent convert on earth. She loves going out with all of the missionaries in our ward to other appointments. She also got a calling last week to make the programs for sacrament meeting and she's so excited about that. They also asked her to learn how to lead music and she's also so excited about that and wants me to help her learn. It's a good thing that's a skill I myself have had to learn the past four months in this ward so that I can actually help her. So we're really happy that things are going so well with her.

I hope you all had a great week!
Love,
Hermana Parkin