Episode 87: The Power is Back On!

Hey everybody,

Things are going well here. We had a huge rain storm that just ended and caused the power to go out all over town. But it was great because now everything isn't as hot as before.

Well, things are going great with the members as well. The branch here only has about 100 members, and only 40 are active. But we are trying to work a little bit harder with them to encourage them and to be able to find people to teach. My companion has been in this area for 3 transfers already so he knows the members very well so that should help us to have their confidence. And we are going to try to offer service to the members so that they will be more likely to support us.

Currently we have a few investigators that we are working with. The closest that we have to baptism is a couple named Londar and Marilis. They are living together but have a goal to get married in June. They are really great, and our other investigators are too, but there is a big problem that we have. The people here rarely answer their cell phones so it makes it a little bit more difficult to do verification but we are working on that too.

Have a great week,

Elder Parker

Episode 86: New Area; New Companion!

Hey everybody,

Well, as you can probably imagine, I got transferred. I am now in a branch called Santo Tomas, which is about 30 minutes from Barranquilla. My new companion is Elder Fernandez. He is from Peru and has been in the mission for about 9 months already. And well, this area is really big; the branch contains a lot of little towns, but we only work in 3 of them. And unfortunately this branch only has one companionship so it is going to be a lot of work but all will be well.

Before I left Castellana things were going very well. We have been trying to help Jhon because his mom told us that he is going through some hard times, but he seems very excited about the church and doesn't want to go to any other. Maria is still a little bit more skeptical but we had a great Stake Conference yesterday and the presiding Seventy gave a great talk directed to the investigators so hopefully that will help her to open her heart more.

All in all everything is going very well. I'm doing fine health wise and hopefully that will continue until I go home. I'll try to write a little more next week when I have a better idea on how everything is going.

Have a great week,

Elder Parker

With Elder Fernandez

Episode 85: Testimony of the Priesthood!

Hey everybody,

It was so great to talk with you guys on Saturday. And again, Happy Mother's Day to mom, Mary, Sarah and Aubree.

Speaking of Mother's Day, there isn't much that happens here by way of celebration. From the worldly aspect the focus is more or less in taking a day to relax and spend time with the mothers. But one of the things that made me a little sad is that there was very little attention paid in the church. Don't get me wrong, I really enjoyed the talks yesterday, but I always enjoyed the special messages that were shared about mothers back home in our ward, and would like to see that tradition carried on in other places.

Our investigators are doing well. Jhon and Maria are still progressing, but unfortunately Jhon changed his college schedule so this past week we haven't been able to visit them. And the other sister that we had found, Eli, was travelling so she wasn't able to attend church either. But we have been working a lot in our efforts to find new investigators, and this week we have found several who may be able to progress.

Well, this week we have been putting a focus in our studies of the Gospel of Jesus Christ, and with that the importance to invite every person to come to Christ and be baptized. In our efforts to make these invitations, I have been strengthened in my testimony of the Priesthood, because it is what makes our baptism valid and even necessary. I know that if this power was not on the earth, the Lord's atonement wouldn't have nearly the same impact as it has today; all because the church has been restored through Joseph Smith. What a great message to share!

I love you all so much and hope that you are well.

Elder Parker

Episode 84: Investigators With Potential!

Hey everybody,

Things are going well here in Colombia. We are still working with Jhon and Maria and all appears well for their baptismal date. This week we also started working with another woman named Eli and she also has a lot of potential. We met her on Saturday and she attended church the next day which was really great.

Things are going well with my companion as well. He's been able to help me out a little bit more now and I'm getting a little more patient as well so that's good.

I am going to try to make the call at 4pm my time so if you guys could make all of the arrangements for that time.

I'm in a little bit of a rush but I'll try to write a little bit more next week.

Elder Parker

Episode 83:Baptism Date Set!

Hey everybody,

Things have been going very well here in Colombia. This last week has been a little bit difficult because we have had several rainy days that didn't let us get out to work as much as I would have liked but aside from that all is well. Jhon and his mom are still progressing very well. They are attending church every week and have been able to know several people in the ward. They are currently preparing to be baptized on June 3rd.

Right now we don't have very many fixed investigators, but yesterday several of the members had invited friends or family to attend church so we will try to contact these people during the week to help them to learn more. 

On Saturday I had a really weird experience. We had been invited to the baptism of a girl who was being baptized in the ward, and we decided to attend and to invite investigators. But the weirdest part was that when they were doing the confirmation, they invited me to participate. It was really strange, because I'd never before participated in a convert confirmation, much less of a ward baptism. But it was a great experience and I really felt very grateful to these members.

About the phone call, I honestly haven't been thinking about a specific time to do it. We will probably be using the computer of the bishop so I will try to talk to him this week to arrange a time to call, but I imagine it will be in the afternoon.

Have a great week,

Elder Parker

 

Episode 82: Great Opportunity to Improve Teaching Skills!

Hey everybody,

Things have been going well this past week. We have been working like crazy to help the people to attend church. And well, even though the majority of the people we had visited didn't attend church, it was still awesome because Jhon Jairo, the kid I talked about last week, attended church with his mom. We were super excited to see them there and they have just been really excited with the church as well. 

Something really crazy happened yesterday. We had talked with the Ward Mission Leader about having the Mission Cordination Meeting in the morning before sacrament meeting, and so we got to the church about 45 minutes early to be able to talk with him. But just as we walked in to the chapel, a sister came up to me asking me to play the piano for a special musical number. But the problem was that I didn't know the song and it wasn't a hymn so I had to learn the song really fast. It went okay so I has happy with that.

Well, things have been a little difficult with my companion. He is really great and all, but he is very quiet and I have to do everything before he starts to do it. But I have been able to learn a lot of patience so that's good and it has been a great opportunity to improve my teaching skills.

Well, the week after general conference our mission president gave us the goal to read all of the book of mormon in 6 months, and because I don't have 6 months, I decided to do it before I go home from the mission. This time I decided to focus my attention in all of the ways that the prophets or other people recognized the spirit and how they were able to recognize it, because I feel that it would be something very important to be able to help the people we teach to recognize the many ways to feel the spirit. I am currently reading in 2 Nephi and it has been very interesting to see the many witnesses that Laman and Lemuel received and that they continued being wicked, when Nephi from the beginning had been willing to obey.

As to the call for Mother's day it will be on Saturday.

I hope you guys have a great week!

Elder Parker

Episode 81: Lots of Fish and Sweets!

Hey everybody,

Well, things have been going okay this past week. The work has definitely been a bit slower because of all of the vacations that people are taking for Easter break. And here unfortunately the parties began Thursday and didn't end until yesterday so the few people that were in their homes weren't very interested in listening to us.

Here the big tradition for Easter is that they eat lots of fish and different types of sweets. We only ate fish like 2 times in all the week, but it was still really good.

About the baptism, the girl's name is Geinis Yepez. We are still working with Keila but she has been out of town all week so she probably won't be ready to be baptized t

he end of this month but we are still trying to see how soon she will be ready.

Also this week we have been finding some great new people. We were able to visit a young man that the missionaries had visited one time before and we had a great talk with him and he accepted a baptismal date and was very excited to attend church. Unfortunately, he wasn't able to go so we will have to keep working there.

I hope you all have a great week and I'll talk to you soon.

Elder Parker

Geinis' baptism