Episode 78: Questions Answered by the Book of Mormon!

Hey everybody,

Everything is going great here in Colombia. This week we have been looking for investigators like crazy and have been able to find a few people with a lot of potential to progress. One of them is a man named Antonio and he is just so great. We contacted him in front of his house and talked with him a little bit. He told us that his wife had passed away about 4 months ago. We were able to talk to him about the Plan of Salvation and the questions that are answered in the Book of Mormon about what happens after death and it was awesome. At the end he said "I'm not sure if you were sent here by God or not, but this has been so great to hear." 

We also have an investigator named Ruggelis that we have been working with and on Saturday we were talking with him and just trying to answer a ton of questions that he has and at the end of the lesson he accepted a baptismal date and even attended sacrament meeting for the first time. We are going to talk to him tonight to see how he felt with everything.

With Duvan's family we still haven't been able to make any progress but we are trying to talk a little better with his dad. We were working with his brother but he still hasn't made any efforts to change so we haven't been working with him as much. 

I'm not sure about the progress on the temple but the last time I saw it they had finished the basic structure and were starting to work on the roof. I'm not sure as to where they are now but I believe that the estimated date of completion is in 2018.

Have a great week,

Elder Parker

Episode 77: Señorita Colombia Lock Down!

Hey everybody,

Well, I am writing today because all of the internets in our area were closed yesterday because it was a holiday. But unfortunately I don't have much time because we have to start to work soon.

I'm glad to hear that everything is going well back home. This past week we had a bit of a surprise because Cartagena was the host of the Señorita Colombia beauty pageant this past weekend, and because of that we were closed in our house every night after 4pm. It was not a very productive week but one of the good things is that Nataly was able to be baptized. But because of the close-in we were not able to attend the baptismal service but everybody told us that all went well, but now we don't have a picture of the service. But with that baptism we now don't have anyone who is actively preparing for baptism. This week will be more-or-less pure contacting until we have more people to work with.

This week I read 2 Nephi 27 during my personal study and some things that really stood out to me are all of the prophesies about the restoration and Joseph Smith. It really is amazing to think of the extent of depth that was put into the prophesies, such as details about the education of Joseph Smith and the losing of the manuscript. And even more interesting is that many of the prophesies come directly from the book of Isaiah. It  really shows that the Bible and the Book of Mormon testify that Joseph Smith is a prophet of God.

Thank you so much for all of your support. I have been able to learn so much this week about the love that God has for me and it's more more than I can explain over an email but I really know that God is my Heavenly Father and he loves me more than anything. Even to the extent that he has entrusted me with his most precious harvest. I know that Joseph Smith is a prophet of God and that the church that he restored is the true church.

Have a great  week,

Elder Parker

Episode 76: After Baptism Everything Changed!

Hey everybody,

Everything is going great here in Colombia. We just had a little bit of rain yesterday so things were a little bit cooler.

Also Nataly was interviewed and is all ready to be baptized on Saturday. We are really excited for her and the ward is too which is great because we are hoping that we have a good attendance at the baptism.

Also today I found out that Jhony's mom got baptized. I don't know if you guys remember, but Jhony is one of my converts from when I was in Las Moras. It's great because when I was there she didn't want anything to do with the church but when her son got baptized everything changed.

And well, here in Castellana there isn't very much going on right now. We don't have very many investigators so we have been trying to find new people to teach. More than anything we have been knocking doors but with very little success. We are trying to find some new strategies to find investigators this week. One of our ideas is to visit a family of members every day to try to excite them for mission work and to receive references. We are also using the area book to look for old investigators.

I hope you guys have a great week.

Elder Parker

Episode 75:Everything's Great in Cartagena!

Hey everybody,

I'm glad everything is going great back home. So we had transfers and I am still in the same area with the same companion. He is going to complete 6 months in this area this transfer so I imagine that he will be going before I do.

Everything is going great with Duvan and his family. We haven't been able to talk with his dad so nothing has changed there but we are trying to get Duvan ready to receive the priesthood. 

Nataly is doing well too. We are trying to get her ready for an interview this Saturday. 

This week we didn't have any luck finding new investigators almost all week. We were able to find a ton of new parts of our area that haven't been worked very much, but nobody wanted to receive us. But yesterday everything changed. All of the people that we contacted received us and a few were even really interested in the message and said that we could return to continue sharing. It was so great that all of our efforts during the week paid off in the end.

Everything was normal with the Carnavales because they only occurred in Barranquilla, not here in Cartagena. But I heard that we will be having another celebration in April when they have the beauty pageant for the Queen of Cartagena. I'm not sure if anything will happen for us or not.

Have a great week.

Elder Parker

Duvan's baptism

Episode 74: Duvan was Baptized!

Hey everybody,

Things are going great here. This week we will be having transfers, but because of the Carnavales of Barranquilla the transfers will not happen until Thursday. Our mission president also sent us a letter saying that only 16 changes will be made so almost everyone will be staying in the same place this time. We won't be finding out about any changes until Wednesday so there is little to report on that subject.

Everything went great with Duvan's baptism. His mom was able to attend and also attended church on Sunday. His dad was not able to attend but we had a conversation with him that was really excellent. He told us how glad he was that his son would be baptized, and even told us that he would like for all of his family to have the chance to be baptized in the church. He says that he knows the church is true but his job does not give him the ability to attend church and he is not able to find work in any other place. It was so great to know this and now we have a determination much greater to help him and his family.

We have another investigator who is preparing for baptism. It is a young girl named Nataly. All of her family are members of the church, but she is 9 years old and still hasn't been baptized yet so we are trying to prepare her for that. We also have a few other investigators but as of right now none of them are progressing for baptism.

Have a great week and I will talk to you guys later. And sorry, I didn't bring my camera with me so I will have to send pictures next time.

Elder Parker