Episode 31: Working Crazy Hard!

Hey everybody,

Things are going really great here. We have been working crazy hard with our investigators and have had a lot of success. We had 5 that attended church and the ward helped us out a lot with fellow-shipping them so they really enjoyed it. Unfortunately we still do not have any baptisms for these next few weeks but we are starting to have more investigators in church so we are excited for that.

We really haven't done anything special here for Easter. Here for Easter everyone makes sweets from different fruits and those are super good but no one celebrates with the Easter Bunny or anything like that. But it was still cool to see everybody a little bit more focused in Christ, although a lot of people used "Holy Week" as a chance to drink and party, which was sad to see.

We have been getting a lot of references from the members about who to teach. They have been super helpful because those investigators already have support from their friends and neighbors. One family, the Moreno family (family of Rafael) have been super helpful and it's great because they are all recent converts as of a year or so. So they have been able to help us with new people to teach.

For my health, right now I feel really good. My companion has a few problems but I feel great and am working hard to stay that way. 

I still have no idea what is going to happen with transfers. I feel like I'm going to leave but it's also possible that I might stay. Whatever happens is going to be super great though.

I hope everything is going well at home. Forest and Felicity look great and I can't wait to see everybody in a few months.

Elder Parker

Episode 30: Progress with Less Actives!

Hey everybody,

This week has been really good. We have been able to make a lot of progress with our less active members and many are returning to the church. It is so satisfying to be able to help the members make this change in their lives. 

These past few weeks we have been having a lot of difficulties with investigators so we haven't been teaching as many lessons with them, but this week we made goals to focus even more on the investigators so we can have more people joining the church because right now we have very few perspective baptisms. We have a lot of great members here helping us out too so things are going very good.

Haha things won't be that bad for Kaleb in the MTC because everyone speaks English but he might struggle a little in the field. But then again, he will still be in the United States so there should be someone, if not his companion, who speaks English. 

We have transfers next week and I am pretty sure that I will be leaving Valledupar. I'm a little sad to go but I can still hardly believe that it has already been 4 transfers. I have had so many great memories here and can't wait to meet new people and have new experiences. My companion has been helping me a ton to improve and to prepare to be a leader so that's been really helpful.

I hope everyone is doing well at home and can't wait to see you guys in a few months at Mother's Day.

Elder Parker

Episode 29: Rafael got baptized!

Hey everybody,

Things are going great here. Time is seriously flying by; it feels like I just wrote you guys yesterday. We are doing so much here and it's really awesome to see how much has changed since I got here 5 months ago. 

This week Rafael got baptized!! It was so great and he was so happy. And what's even better is that now the whole family are members of the church. They are all getting ready to go to the temple next month to do baptisms and a few are going to receive their endowments.

For the most part we are still really struggling with investigators attending church but we had a sister attend yesterday named Reyes and she really liked it and is excited to go next week. We also had 23 less active members attend so that was really cool too. 

Transfers end in 2 weeks, but I'm not sure if I will leave or not. I probably will but there have been missionaries who have stayed for almost a year in some areas. I would not be too mad if I left though, because everything is becoming a routine here but I am fine with whatever happens.

I can't believe it is already Easter. We got a letter from the mission president saying that we are going to receive the cards for the Easter video soon but I'm not sure if that will be before Easter if it is in 2 weeks. But thank you for the cards. I will try to print them today.

Um, that's about it. Nothing really exciting is going on. See you guys in a few months.

Elder Parker

Rafael's baptism

Episode 28: Welcome to the world Felicity!

Hey everybody,

It sounds like there are a lot of crazy things going on at home. I can't believe that Felicity finally came. It seems like I haven't been out long enough for it to already be time but congrats to Adam and Aubree. I can't wait to meet her at Mother's day.

I can't believe that dad got hurt. I still can't believe all of the injuries that have happened since I got here. This is all just so crazy. But I hope that he will feel better and be able to heal soon.

This week has been really good. We have been working a lot with less active members and have been having a lot of success, but we haven't been able to work as much with the investigators. We are going to try to balance our time a little bit better this week to be able to help more investigators attend church. Rafael is still getting ready for his baptism this Saturday and we are working with Edwin to be ready in a few weeks too.

I got the picture books!!! We got home one night and the man who lives in the apartment beneath ours gave me the package. The books are super helpful, thank you so much. I have been using one to teach in the lessons and we are trying to think of a few families that we can give them to.

Mom, I haven't heard about the Easter video but I will try to look for it soon.

Dad, I'm not quite sure how you sent the reference because I haven't seen anything in my email. If you could remind me of the information that you sent that would be super helpful. Thank you.

I hope everything is good at home. I can't believe it's already getting close to mothers day. Time is really going by so fast. I'll see you guys in no time.

Elder Parker

Episode 27: Great things are happening!

Hey everybody,

Things have been going great here. We have been working hard here and great things are happening. Rafael is ready to be baptized but it will be in two weeks because he is only here once every two weeks for his job. Edwin is also progressing very well and we hope to be able to have his interview in two weeks! German is doing well too. He attended church and mutual this past week and is excited about church. I'm not sure what happened last week but he has completely changed.

It's great to hear about the family. I hope grandma is doing well and Emma too. That's crazy that the Provo temple is already complete. It was announced at the same time as the Barranquilla temple was, so that's not fair. But everybody here is getting really excited about the temple and the opportunity to go a lot more often. And the ward has a trip to Bogota in April so everybody is preparing for the temple.

So, remember when I said I had a cold last week. So it never went away and I talked to the wife of the mission president who was a pharmacist and she said that I have a nasal infection. So that's super fun. I am taking medicine for it but every day I have seriously no energy, but I just keep pushing on and trying to keep going.

I hope everyone is doing well. If you guys have questions for me or anything you want to know about please feel free to ask. Really I'm just having a blast here and trying my hardest to help people.

See you guys soon,

Elder Parker

Episode 26: Success with less actives!

Hey everybody,

This week has been really great. We have been working hard with the less active members of the ward and had a lot of success as 21 of them attended church yesterday (we have over 40 assigned). It was really great to be able to see them in church again, as there were quite a few families that attended for the first time in a while.

The groundbreaking was very cool. We were able to invite a family that we are working a lot with where the grandfather is getting ready to be baptized in a few weeks, and they really enjoyed the experience. And it was also pretty funny because my North American mission president was shorter than some of the Latinos doing the groundbreaking ceremony. But a very special experience.

This week we had an amazing lesson with a less active sister. She hasn't attended church in years due to issues with leaders of the church but we just taught her about forgiveness and it was super powerful. I was really kind of hard with her, but it was all the spirit and it was seriously crazy. It was the strongest I have ever felt the spirit in a lesson.

This week was a little depressing for our recent converts. We only have 5 that are active out of 13, and this past week German basically told us that he really isn't that interested in the church. So that was really hard to hear but we are going to try to help him this week to change his attitude. We are having a few problems with Berta too but she is still attending church so that's good.

I hope everything is going well at home. Things are definitely getting better here. I have been able to evaluate myself on a few things that I need to work on so I feel very good. And I just got over a nasty cold that me and my companion had so that's awesome too.

I miss you guys and will see you in a few months.

Elder Parker

Episode 25: Temple Groundbreaking in Barranquilla!

Hey Everybody,

How is everybody? Things are going so great here. I just got a new companion this past Thursday and he is super great. His name is Elder Tupiz and he is from Quito Ecuador. He has so much energy and is really crazy. He actually reorganized our apartment these past few days and now I think it's almost the apartment of sister missionaries because it is so neat and clean. But it's really nice to have a clean house.

We are still working on having a few baptisms. We have two planned for February 27 for Edwin and Rafael. We are working on organizing our efforts here a little more to be more efficient in our work so hopefully we will be able to have a few more baptisms in the future but we are working on preparing Sandri too for her baptism. It's a lot of work but I really enjoy what we are doing.

I don't know if you have already heard but this Saturday will be the groundbreaking for the Barranquilla temple. We will be able to view the meeting in the chapel here in Valledupar so I am very excited for that. I think that we watched the groundbreaking for the Newport temple but I don't remember anything so it will be a great experience.

I have not received the family calendar yet but if you sent it recently it will probably take a while to get here. I am still far from the Mission office so it might be waiting there for me. The next chance I will have to receive it will be in a few weeks. Hopefully it will come soon, I am excited to see all of the photos.

Thank you for all of the support that I am receiving here. It means so much that you guys are writing and showing support. I can't wait to see you in a few months.

Elder Parker

With new companion, Elder Tupiz

Berta's baptism

Family Home Evening Activity in Valledupar