Episode 96: Baptismal Date Set!

Hey everybody,

Well, this week has been very eventful, especially yesterday. At the  beginning of the week Londar and Marylin told us that they are going to wait until the 12th of August to get married. When we were in the church we got a message from the cousin of Londar saying that now they aren't going to get married or baptized because they are still having problems. We are going to keep working with them to see if we can help them with these problems that they are having but as for now it looks like I won't be having any other baptisms before I go home.

Things are going very well with our other investigators. We have been working hard with Duvan and he is super excited. We were able to set a baptismal date for September 23 and he is happy because that is also his birthday.

Vicky is doing great also. She works out of town all week so the only day we can visit is Sunday, but every time we go she always has food for us, and the family has been really happy in the church. 

We are still working on finding new investigators as well. This week we found a great new investigator named Hilary. At first she didn't seem too interested, but the second visit we had was really great because she seemed to have changed a lot and was a lot more excited.

Well, I hope you all are doing well back at home.

Have a great week,

Elder Parker

Episode 95: Finding New Investigators!

Hey everybody,

Things are going great here. This past week has been really great. We have been able to find several new investigators who have a lot of potential to progress. One of them is a sister named Vicky. We talked with her in a bakery next to our house and she told us that the missionaries had visited her a few years back and she invited us to her house. We went this past week and invited her and her two daughters to church, and she attended with the eldest daughter. It was amazing to see her there and yesterday in the afternoon we had another lesson with her and she is very excited about the church.

Well, all of our other investigators are doing great as well. This week Londar and Marylin are going to get married so we are really excited for that. Duvan, the brother of the YM president, is also progressing really well and is getting excited for his baptism.

I'm going to send a few photos as well from our activities this week.

Have a great week and talk to you guys soon.

Elder Parker

Episode 94: A Week Full of Miracles!

Hey everybody,

Well to start out, I want to thank everybody for their birthday messages. It means so much to me to have all your support.

Things are going insanely well here. This week has been full of miracles. First off, Marilyn was able to receive her and Londar's birth certificates and we were able to turn them in to the notary. They are going to be married on July 28th so we are super excited. Londar presented us with one of his cousins and he has been able to attend church as well and is enjoying it. Viviana has also been progressing a ton and she is bringing two of her nieces to the church activities as well. We also started working with the brother of the young men's president and now he is attending seminary and all the other ward activities. All in all we have a bunch of people who are progressing so we are thrilled out of our minds.

Well, about the progress on the temple. Here is the image that the office sent us.

Barranquilla Colombia Temple in progress

                              

Everything else is going great. We've got a lot to do so we have been keeping ourselves busy. 

Have a great week and I'll talk to you guys later.

Elder Parker

Episode 93: Getting Baptized in the Future!

Hey everybody,

Well, I'm stuck writing again on Tuesday because yesterday we had a huge rainstorm and all the power went out in the town. 

But everything has been going great here. We have been working a lot with Viviana and she is progressing well. We invited her to a ward activity that we had and she loved it. She has been reading all of the assignments that we have been leaving for her as well. We challenged her to be baptized on September 30th and she was a little unsure of the date but says that she would like to be baptized in the future so we are happy with that.

We also have been able to start working with a few youth that came to church on Sunday. They are siblings of our branch's young men's president and we talked with the oldest who is 17 years old and he seems to be really enjoying the church as well.

As for the friends of Erick, we still haven't been able to do anything with him yet because the schedule for the students who are in their last year of schooling is terrible so he basically doesn't have any free time, but he has been able to help us in our visits with Viviana so we're still really thrilled with his support.

Healthwise I've been doing pretty well. I've had a cough this week but it hasn't been bothering me too much so I haven't paid too much attention. There are a lot of people right now who are sick with the flu so I've been carrying around a bottle of hand sanitizer with me wherever I go.

And well, that's about it. It's been pretty sunny here if you could imagine. But all is going great.

Have a great week and I'll be talking to you guys more in the future.

Elder Parker

Episode 92: Sharing the Gospel With the Youth!

Hey everybody,

Well yesterday we had transfers and me and my companion will continue together. Yesterday was also a holiday here in Colombia so there was no way for us to write. But things are going very well here. This past week we have been working like crazy visiting the members of the branch to try to activate a few of them and to keep the rest excited and motivated in the church. It has been great and the members have really been treating us with a little bit more respect because they see that we are working.

About our work with the youth, this past week we went to visit a youth named Erick and we told him about our goal to be able to help him to share the gospel with his friends and he told us that he already has a list of friends ready that he wants to introduce us to. We were just really excited and so this Friday he is going to help us to meet his list of friends. 

We were also able to find a new investigator on Saturday named Viviana and we invited her to church on Sunday and she got there on her own. We were so surprised when we saw her but also really happy.

Well, all in all we are very happy with everything that is going on right now and can't wait to see what happens in the future.

I hope everybody has a great week and we'll be talking again soon.

Elder Parker

Episode 91: Small Answer to Prayers!

Hey everybody,

Thank you so much for your letters! Things have been difficult this past week but we're going to keep on fighting! We had been working so much with a few of the investigators that we already have and throughout the week we had 8 or 9 that said they would attend church. But on Sunday when we were calling them and we even passed by the house of a few of them and they all cancelled except for Londar and Marilyn, who were able to attend. It was really tough but we tried our hardest.

About Londar and Marilyn, we have been trying to help them find their birth certificates but they seem to be lacking in their efforts to find everything. We have been trying to help them with a few of the commandments to get them even more prepared for baptism so we are hoping that all will go well.

And well, this week we also had a super great experience with a woman named Bertha. We contacted her daughter about 2 weeks ago and started to teach her last Sunday. She has been progressing a lot and we had a really spiritual lesson with her on Saturday. She was able to recognize a small answer to her prayers about our message and then we invited her to be baptized and she accepted. Unfortunately she couldn't attend church on Sunday either but we are going to keep working with her on that.

Everything else is going great here. Dad, I'm going to put in practice what you sent me about working with the youth and I'll let you know how things are going next week.

Elder Parker

with Elder Choez

Episode 90:Santo Tomas Poses Challenges!

Hey everybody,

Things have been going okay here in Santo Tomas. The work has been a little bit difficult here in the branch. We have been trying several different approaches to find investigators but up until now nothing has been able to lead to good results. We talked to a few of the youth but the problem is that we don't have much support from the Young Men's president so it makes it a little hard. But we're going to keep working and looking for anyone we can find.

As to Londar and Marilyn, we have been trying very hard to help them but the hard part is not to impede with their agency. We have talked to them many times about obedience and marriage, and they told us that they want to get married so we are leaving them in charge of getting their papers and everything filled so that the experience can be more genuine.

We were also able to have a open house on Saturday to show the new church building to the public. Unfortunately only 6 people came, but they seemed to enjoy our presentations, but none of them were able to attend church. But this week we are planning on visiting them to be able to follow up on the things that we talked about with them.

During the open house I was able to give a small presentation about The Family: A Proclamation to the World and it really impacted me about how important the gospel is in the family. I mean, it's possible that a family outside the church can find happiness, but it is a lot more difficult. And it is honestly impossible for a family to be together forever without the blessings of the temple. It's so amazing to have the gospel in our family.

Have a great week,

Elder Parker