Episode 22: Teaching Repentance and Baptizing Converts!

Hey Everybody,

 Sorry I couldn't write yesterday. The email service was down so nobody was able to write but we all have the opportunity to write today.

This week was great. We had a conference with the mission president and had the opportunity to participate in a worldwide broadcast for missionaries. It was all about Teaching Repentance and Baptizing Converts. The talks were all super great and I am very excited to continue working.

About the mail situation, about two weeks ago I received two letters that I forgot about and this last Wednesday I received the letter sent through the Pouch system. I guess the mail system works but is just very slow.

I am playing the piano every week in sacrament meeting and every time we have a meeting as missionaries, so a couple times every week. It's a little rough because I don't have time to practice at all so I have to sight read everything and the person who chooses the songs likes to pick one's that I have never heard of before, but it's all good. I am getting much better and have been able to give a few mini lessons so hopefully someone else will be able to take over when I leave.

We are still planning on the baptism for Berta this weekend so hopefully everything goes well with that. We are trying to have another one next week for Edwin but are still having some trouble getting permission from his parents. His mom is definitely starting to soften up so we are trying to work with her more.

I hope everyone is feeling better. Please tell everyone how thankful I am for all of the support that I am receiving . I love you guys so much and hope that everything is well at home.

Elder Parker

Episode 21: It feels like home!

Hey everybody,

Things are going so great here. I miss you guys but I am loving it here. I don't know how but I am finally starting to feel at home in Colombia. The work is going great and we are having a somewhat successful transfer. We are still seriously struggling with the attendance of our investigators, but this week was super great for less actives. We had nine that were able to attend, including a family that has been less active for a while and hasn't attended since before I arrived here. It was so great to be able to see them at church and my testimony of my purpose here as a missionary really grew.

Dad, I did not break any rules in writing to you on Tuesday. We called the Zone Leaders and they talked to the Assistants who gave us permission to write on Tuesday. And today we received a letter from the Mission President making it a standard policy that if we can't write on Monday we can make up the time on Tuesday.

That's so awesome that Jonathon got his mission call. Wow, I can't believe all of my friends are starting to serve missions. I kinda feel like one of the sons of Mosiah when they are all leaving for their missions, and I am only hoping that I can be the kind of missionary that Ammon is. I have been studying in Alma and I love his attitude about missionary work and the joy that he has from helping the Lamanites. I just have to make it my goal to be as good as him and keep working at it.

Everything is going pretty well in our ward (Mom, it's called Garupal). We are getting ready for a baptism in 2 weeks. It is for a sister named Berta, and she is super excited about getting baptized and has so many friends in the ward that I feel really good about her baptism. She has her interview next Saturday and then the baptism the following Saturday.

I hope everyone is doing well. I hope Emma gets better soon so I can beat her at soccer when I get home and am super good. Just kidding, I probably won't be super good. But still being sick stinks.

Thanks for all your support. See you soon,

Elder Parker

Episode 20: Internet shops are such a headache!

Hey Everybody,

Sorry I couldn't write yesterday. Here we can only write in little internet shops and the only one's that were available yesterday didn't let me and my companion sit near each other so we weren't able to write. But we were able to find a new shop with a lot of computers so hopefully I will be able to write on Monday for the rest of the time that I am here in Valledupar.

Things sound super great back at home. I hope Emma is doing well and can recover soon. Zach, congrats on the job! That sounds super great, and that's awesome that you are involved in the construction projects too. I feel like I am missing out on all the fun meetings to talk about drywall and stucco and desks.

My stomach has been feeling way better for like the last week. Right now the only problem that I have is that I have been getting a lot of headaches, but I just keep working and trying to focus on helping people.

Things are a little rough with the people we are teaching. We have a lot of people that we are working with, but hardly any of them are attending church. They all just making up excuses when we ask them like that they don't have money for a taxi or they just weren't able to make it. It is really tough and I'm kinda stressed out about it, but I know that if we try our hardest, then things will work out. 

With that being said, we haven't been able to set a date for Sandri's baptism because she wasn't able to attend church this week so we have to wait a little bit longer but she still needs a little more help to be ready for baptism. But German is still attending so that is good, but we are doing all of the effort for him to attend so if we leave I am positive that he is going to go inactive so that makes me really sad, but I just have to try harder to help him find support from the ward.

We have started teaching a girl named Angela who is the sister of a less active member of the ward and she is doing great. She has a great testimony and has started to receive answers and knows that the church is true, so we are super excited. She just has to wait 3 weeks to have enough weeks attending church but she is very happy so we feel really good.

Um, that's basically it. Things are going well, we are working hard and I am super happy. I am learning so much every day and it's so great to be out here.

I love you guys so much and am so glad that you guys can receive the blessings from the work that I am doing here.

See you soon,

Elder Parker

Episode 19: Same bat place; Same bat companion!

Hey Everybody,

Things are super great here. I am still in the same place, with the same companion. It is super weird to still be with my trainer since my training is done but now we have a lot more time to work and teach so it's super great. We are hard at work to make sure that we can have a lot of success now that we have the ability to teach more people.

Mom, congrats on the calling!!!! That's so awesome that you are in the Primary. Did you just switch so that you could spend more time with Adelaide? Haha it's so strange thinking back on my time in primary because it seems so long ago, but it was only like 8 years. I feel old. 

New years was a party. We just did the same exact thing that we do every day, and the only difference was that we got to listen to music all day and night. And we really couldn't contact anybody because everyone was drunk, but that was fine because we just had lessons with members and investigators, and a lot of them gave us food which was awesome. But it really doesn't feel like 2016. These past four months have just been so weird that I've really started to lose track of time.

In the next couple of weeks we should be having another baptism. There is a woman we have been teaching named Sandri and she just needs to be interviewed and then we are ready to go. But I honestly have been way more focused in just helping people to be happy, so I'm not too bummed that we haven't had too many baptisms. 

I hope everyone is doing well. How's everything going with Zach and the Air Force? Has Lydia bit anyone else yet? How old are James and Adelaide? I feel really bad but I don't remember anything. Please tell all the kiddos that I love 'em and can't wait to see how much they are growing in a little while.

See you soon,

Elder Parker

Christmas came to Colombia

German got baptized

Family Home Evening

                                     

Episode 18: Baptized German!

Hey everybody,

This past week has been great. This past Saturday I had the privilege to baptize German. It was super great because his mom and little brother were able to attend and it was a super spritual experience.

Christmas was pretty good here. After we finished talking to our families we were able to attend the ward Christmas dinner, which was super yummy. It was kinda sad because like 200 people attended the dinner, but only 100 attended church on Sunday. We have a lot of work to do, but we are slowly making progress so all is good.

We still haven't found out about transfers yet. The calls usually happen tonight after our planing session at 9. I'm not sure what is going to happen but I am very excited to see what my next opportunity will be here on my mission.

My studies right now are all in Spanish. Usually I will read a chapter of the Book of Mormon, the New Testament, Chapter 6 of Preach my Gospel about Christlike Attributes, and usually find scriptures to use in teaching the lessons that day. It started out really rough in Spanish but has gotten a lot easier and I have barely looked at my English scriptures except to look up a weird word that I don't recognize.

I haven't been able to ask about the names from Brother Parker. I know the missionaries from the Loperena ward so I will try to ask them this week.

Thank you so much for all of your prayers and support. I am so blessed to have your support here. See you guys in a few months at Mothers Day!!!

Elder Parker

Merry Christmas Skype call

Elder Parker with Elder Reyes - Christmas in Valledupar

Zone Christmas Party with President and Sister Searle

Episode 17: Meeting with the President!

Hey everybody,

It sounds like everyone is very busy getting ready for Christmas. We are getting very busy too. We have a Christmas meeting with the Mission President and his wife tomorrow and then on Friday there is a Christmas dinner for the ward. And then there is a phone call home which is just around the corner. And then transfers will happen right after Christmas too so that's crazy. I can't believe I have almost been in Valledupar for 3 months. I still feel like I just left home.

For the most part, everything is going pretty good here. German had his interview and is ready to be baptised the 26th of December. It's gonna be great because it is the last weekend of the transfer so it will probably be Elder Reyes' last experience here in Valledupar before he is transferred. But German is super excited and so that's great.

Right now we are getting rid of a lot of investigators. There are so many that just aren't progressing so we are starting from scratch with a lot of new people so we are hoping for good stuff with this. One of our newer investigators named Sandri was able to attend church yesterday. It was awesome because we invited her like last Tuesday and she has been super excited for it ever since. We are going to meet with her again tomorrow so hopefully she had a good experience.

Um. there really isn't that much going on here right now. I feel a little bit overwhelmed because I am starting to set really high goals for myself because I know we can get a lot done, but my companion is a little bit hesitant. We aren't doing bad right now, but I just really want to do more.

I hope everything is going well at home. I can't wait to talk to you guys in just over a week.

See you guys soon,

Elder Parker

Episode 16: Mail does go to Colombia!

Hey everybody,

Things seem to be going great back at home. Things here are going okay. We are really struggling to get people to attend church. On Saturday we had almost everyone saying that they would attend, but in reality only two of our investigators did. It's really stressful but we are trying to do our best here.

Everybody is getting ready for Christmas! I'm sad that I missed the ward Christmas party, but our ward will have a Christmas dinner in about two weeks, so we are pretty excited for that. The same day as the dinner we are hoping to have the baptism of German, so we'll see how that goes. Unfortunately, the baptism for Berta isn't going to happen for a while because she started working every day from 8 am to 8 pm, so we never have a chance to talk to her. Her schedule will be better in January so we are hoping that things will start to improve then.

I finally received a letter! This week at our Zone meeting I got the very first letter you sent to me in September when I was still in the CCM. Hopefully that means that any other letters will get here soon. I also got a call from one of the Secretaries that my packages arrived at the office and that they will get here in about two weeks, so hopefully right before Christmas. I do have to pay a customs fee so that is pretty lame but I still have plenty of American money so I am doing fine for right now.

Right now I am studying in Mosiah at the part when Abinadi is talking to the wicked priests. I love it because the priests are trying to trick Abinadi but he always has just these solid answers so none of the priests can accuse him of anything. It is really cool for me as a missionary to think about this because Satan wants so badly for me to slip up, so I just have to focus so much on the Spirit and what it's telling me to say.

One last thing. Today we were in the mall doing some shopping when the song "I'll be home for Christmas" started playing. That was really weird because they used to always play it on the radio with the messages from the soldiers, but it applies here too. Even though I'm lots of miles away, I'm still thinking about you guys and trying every day to do the things to make you proud.There is nothing I would rather do this Christmas than spend my time in the service of the Savior.

I love you guys and can't wait to see you in a few weeks.

Elder Parker