Messejana, Brazil - Small and simple things

Hey everybody!!

This week, mannnn were we running around!! It was super busy. We´ve been staying out till 9:30 on the dot almost every night and then at night we like to talk so I´ve been going on little sleep haha oh ma I don´t know how anyone can get used to getting up at 6:30... I´ve been out this long and I still wake up like a zombie every morning lolol. But anyways! There´s a standard in our mission where we have to find 5 new investigators every day and have 4 people on date for baptism. Which means, contacting. It wasn´t my favorite thing to do, but now I've gotten used to it and it´s just amazing how many people there are in the world! And every single one of them has a story. So yeah, we´ve been meeting lots of new people this week which has been great! We met this guy, Wellington, on Thursday who´s 30 years old but I literally thought he was 23 at most! He´s very young in spirit and one day when we stopped by he was listening to….. HIGH SCHOOL MUSICAL!! Shout out to my girl Maddie Wilkins! Totally thought of you haha! But yeah, he loves to design and loves to listen to and watch Disney and he´s super cool! We told him we´d wake him up for church, so Sunday morning we pass by and his mom lets us in and he´s all wrapped up in his sheet in his hammock and we say, "Good morning!!!" and shake the hammock hahaha and he was up not even 2 minutes later! It was awesome! He went to church with us and he told us he hadn´t been to any church in 5 YEARS! 5 YEARS! It was awesome! He´s still getting used to some things though. He believes in God and Jesus Christ but he´s not used to praying. We haven´t run into Pedro or Deoclesio much this week…. we think Pedro is hiding from us L And 3 weeks in a row Deoclesio said he´d go to church and every Sunday he has had another excuse…we think it´s time to move on, sadly.

I´ve been learning so much in my personal study and I just LOOOOVE this gospel!!! There´s no doubt in my mind that this is the true church of Jesus Christ! Please please PLEASE if any of you have questions or doubts, go to one of our church buildings on Sunday (you can find the time and place online at mormon.org I believe) and ask the missionaries or any member there! OR, pray when you´re alone and in a quiet setting. Ask God with real intent which direction you should take in your life. Ask Him if what I´m doing is true, ask Him if the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints is the true church of Christ. If you want to learn more, talk to the missionaries! Don´t be afraid of them! Our purpose is to help you come closer to Christ! He loves you and we have a Father in Heaven who knows us and loves us, too. This past week I received the January Liahona (our church magazine) and I read a little part that a missionary had written. I can´t remember his exact words but he talked about how much joy he received when someone said, "yes, come on in" or the sadness he felt when someone said, "please don´t come back again." Sometimes I think my testimony is weak, sometimes my Portuguese is poor, but I have felt these things that he described. I have felt the joy when someone accepts our message, when they go to church, when they search for the truth themselves, and I have felt the sadness and sorrow when someone doesn´t want to let go of the life of worldly happiness. There is eternal happiness and it´s through Jesus Christ! I love you all and I wish this happiness for you all J

Have an amazing week! I love you all so much, thank you for your love and support!!

Te amo!

- Sister Parks

Messejana, Brazil - January 25, 2015

Good morning everybody!

So, I have some good news! This week we had a mission conference and Sister Fusco (our mission president´s wife) gave us some great advice. She told us that we have 40 minutes to use the Internet. BUT that doesn´t mean the computer! She said that we should do the following: get on the computer, put in our numbers, write to President, and then exit out. Go to Word and write as much as you want to your family, your friends, and then get back on the internet, copy and paste, and send pictures!! We were all like……. we're all idiots. Hahahaha!

So you´re back to getting horribly long emails with bad English! This week had a bunch of good times hahaha it´s been raining a lot which has been a blessing aaaaad sometimes not haha. So Wednesday we had our mission conference which was a broadcast that every single mission in the world was watching!! It was so cool BECAUSE…. MY MISSION IN UTAH WAS THERE!!! Well, half of them. As y´all may or may not remember, my mission was split after my first transfer there. The Orem Mission was made. So, as far as I saw, it looked like only the Orem mission was there. But I totally saw my beloved trainer, Sister Diuguid!!!! And the sister who was directing the music was Sister Kirkendall´s (my comp in the MTC who´s here with me) first companion in Provo, too!!! I was totally freaking out! It was so great! Elder Bednar, Elder Andersen and other general authorities talked to us and there were parts where they had discussions with missionaries in a side room – it was super cool!

Soo after that we all headed back to our areas. We changed out of our nice clothes and into normal proselyting clothes and headed out for the night. Also, it was really hot that day. As we left a member´s house, it started to sprinkle! So we started down the road and within like 2 minutes it started to POUR!!! People were under trees, under porches, and we were just marching on! The roads were rivers and we had to walk through it haha it was maybe half a foot of water! So we headed to a recent convert´s house and she gave me another shirt to wear hahaha seriously, we were COMPLETELY drenched!! We called our leaders and asked if we could go back to our house to change into dry clothes and grab umbrellas this time lol so we did that. I´ll send yáll a picture of me when we arrived in our house. So that was an interesting night! Haha!

Well Pedro was supposed to be baptized this week but his daughter broke her leg and we didn´t see him Saturday or Sunday! We were super sad because we thought he was hiding from us like everyone else, but we saw him last night and he explained everything and he promised that next week he´ll go to church and he never breaks his promises!

Lol so the other day we stopped by with another guy we´re teaching, Deuclesio. So when we arrive he was acting a bit strange haha but we all sat down and he said that he thought we had scheduled for another day and he was a tad drunk but oh my gosh it was the funniest thing! Not that he was drinking. But how he was acting! He was sooo smily and was holding his hands against his chest and asking for forgiveness and out of nowhere he asks, "Have yáll seen my light?" He pulls out this toy light bulb that changed colors and we all couldn´t keep in our laughs hahaha and he was just like whaaat?? So we set up another time to see him lol and when we left he said "Bye princesses!"

I´ll finish this up though :) I didn´t write down every thing that happened this week so I can´t remember them all! Gah! Sorry! But I hope yáll enjoy the longer letter!

Thank you all for your emails and your love! Miss you guys so much but love y´all even more :) 

- Sister Parks

Messejana, Brazil - January 18, 2016

Hey guys I´m sorry I really don´t have a lot of time! I spent a lot of time reading emails and yeah.... I´m sorry!!!!!

I also don´t really have photos I´m sorry!!

But this week had its ups and downs! Remember Pedro? Well, a few things came up that prevented him from being baptized yesterday and now he´s having doubts. We met with him yesterday and taught him a lot about the importance of baptism and prayer. We invited him to pray and ask God if he should baptized this Sunday. 

We also met this other guy (I swear - all we teach are men lol) Deuclesio who is really great! Except, he didn´t go to church yesterday! When we passed by Sunday morning he had made plans ughh but we´ll meet with him this week to hopefully get him there next Sunday!
I´m doing well! Miss you guys a ton :)

Today may or may not be my 10-month mission anniversary....... so strange.
I´m very happy with my Portuguese! Still room for improvement of course! The very very very VERY few times that I talk in English though....lol I don´t know how! 

Love you guys a lot :) Thanks for everything!
- Sister Parks

Messejana, Brazil - It's raining, it's flooding!

This week has been a #blessed week haha no but seriously,

One, it´s been overcast and rainy a lot!! I forwarded a picture to you guys when it started to POUR and we were on the street! Haha the main road behind us was literally a river!!! I was squealing like a little girl because I was so excited and my companion and a recent convert we were with were laughing at me hahaha!
This week we had a bunch of little miracles!
Oh yeah! Last week we had transfers and I´m staying in Messejana with Sister R. Santos! It´s her last transfer so I´m killing yet another companion!! Which means I´ll probably be staying ANOTHER transfer here in Messejana! That´ll be 6 months here! Crazy! But who knows!
So as you all know we didn´t have any baptisms this past transfer but things are looking up! We met this adorable guy Pedro who is 55-ish and he´s so great and loves when we come over and he went to church yesterday because he said that if he makes a promise, he will fulfill it! He promised, and when we passed by Sunday morning he was ready to go! And he loved it! He accepted to be baptized this Sunday!!!!!
We also had a member this week give us a reference to this adorable couple with a baby boy! The husband has a lot of doubts but they´re so welcoming and give us their full attention and I just love them! I just know the gospel is exactly what they need to raise their family!
The gospel is true!
LOVE YOU GUYS SO MUCH, THANK YOU FOR YOUR EMAILS!! I took pictures of them all to read when I log off!
Hope you all have a great week! Te amo!! Tchau!
Com amor,
- Sister Parks

Messejana, Brazil - 2016 what??

This can´t be real! But it is! Wow!

New Year´s Eve was craaazy! I took a video which I will upload to DropBox for you guys and it literally sounds like there was a war going on outside lol I don´t know why fireworks here all sound like bombs but they do lolol needless to say, we didn´t get much sleep that night!
This week was tough because our baptisms fell through. This will be my first transfer without a baptism which really gets you down, especially when we´ve been trying our hardest. We met up with Orismar who is Padua´s nephew. I don´t know if I talked about him before, but I taught him with Sister Alvarado but he disappeared after that! He came back a few weeks ago and we started teaching him again and he really wants a new start and all and he showed up at church last Sunday with Padua and everything! And then this Sunday when we passed by he wasn´t there!! We´re hoping to run into him today.
I got my packages this week!!!!!!!!!!!! Thank you all so much!! I´ve already been using the face scrubber which is sooooo niiiiiceeeee and thanks for the new chacos mom!!! They're perfect! And the Austin picture book!!! Omg I love it!!!! I decided that even if I live in other places throughout my life, I want to end up in Austin. I LOVE MY CITY!!!!! And thanks for all the goodies!!! I´m SO excited to make Oreo Pie!!!! Ahhh!!!! You guys are the BEST!
Here´s to a new year with new starts and new goals! I hope you guys all make goals to better yourselves each and every day! It´s one of my goals. We´ve been given the gift of repentance which allows us to be made clean and start anew and I´m so grateful for that. I know we have a loving Heavenly Father and a Savior, Jesus Christ, who both love us and are willing to give us not just five or twenty, but infinite chances to start over with a clean slate :)
Thanks for your love and prayers! I can´t put into words my love for you all.
Com MUITO amor,
Sister Parks

Messejana, Brazil - Feliz Natal e Feliz Ano Novo

I don´t have much to say since I got to talk with you guys this week!!!! Butttt it was SO good to see you guys!!! I was really worried that afterwards I would be a wreck for weeks but it was just really good to see you guys - it was just what I needed!

Today before we headed to the lan house I sang Phantom of the Opera with my Erlangil (sorry I have no idea how to spell his name lolol) who played the flute! Christmas Eve was wonderful because it was overcast ALL DAY (literally a miracle) and was sprinkling on us off and on so I got to wear my red cardigan!!! But we´re headed into rainy season so hopefully I´ll be able to use my... 2 cardigans that I brought hahaha. Christmas Day was obviously the best because I got to talk to my family who I love with all my heart!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! 

Feliz Natal and Feliz Ano Novo to you all!!!

I love you all so much! Thank you for your love, thank you for your prayers, and thank you for your emails and pictures! 

- Sister Parks

Messejana, Brazil - Feliz Natal and Merry Christmas!!!!!

Yeah, it means the same thing^

Hello family who I get to talk with 3 times this week!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

This week has been filled of fun! 

Tuesday we had our Christmas Mission Conference which was great!! We had pancakes for breakfast (sadly no maple syrup but it was still yummy) and we got to watch a movie!!! It was Kung Fu Panda and I wasn´t looking forward to it because lesbehonest [let’s be honest] it´s really for children and kinda dumb but I put that out of my mind and just enjoyed it and was laughing and it actually had a good message which we all discussed afterwards! We have to believe in ourselves; there´s no secret recipe for greatness. It´s already in us!

Then Friday we had our Zone Christmas Conference which was also nice. We all shared an experience about the spirit of Christmas and such.

This week was also a week of miracles with my recent converts. Eleonardo is doing SO GREAT! He´s going through a treatment to help him stop drinking, and he´s doing so great! The other day we ran into Padua too and get this, after we closed with a prayer with him he saw his friend and he went over to him and started teaching him and inviting him to "our church" and omg it was the cutest thing!!!

Christmas time is great! We also had a Christmas dinner with the ward, and the kids did a performance which I’m sending to y’all! Then afterwards I got to sing Phantom of the Opera!!! Wooh!! The pianist and our friend who lives below us who plays the flute were playing some songs while everyone was in line getting food so I quickly ate and ran over to them in glee and they were like, “sing!!” So I sang a few songs haha - made my night!

I´m doing great! Christmas time is wonderful to think about the true meaning of Christmas, the true Christmas of Spirit. The birth of Jesus Christ! He was the greatest gift our Heavenly Father sent to us :) I´m so grateful to my Savior, I´m grateful for my family, and for the time I have here in Brasil. :)

TALK TO YOU GUYS IN 3 DAYS!!!!!

AMO VOCÊS!!

- Sister Parks