Maracanau, Brazil - Miracles are REAL!!!!

FAMILY!!!!!!!!!!!

Wowowowowowow this week was SO GREAT (SO GREAT!*)! It was filled with miracles!! ! Yáll are going to love this week´s email!

First, some random things:

-          There´s a cookie factory near my area so the area ALWAYS SMELLS LIKE COOKIES! It´s the greatest thing ever. But also the worst when we´re hungry….or fasting.

-          Last P-day we went to the malllllllllll which is great because I always feel at home in the mall lolol we ate Burger King because it´s a big deal here. Which is so funny to me because…who likes Burger King in the United States??? Lol but it was good. After I finished my meal I bought a chocolate shake. Because I´m weak when it comes to chocolate. And ice cream. Milkshakes are my weaknesses. Missin my chocolate shakes at Amy´s man….

-           Speaking of ice cream, there´s this really good ice cream place in my area lolol and it´s kinda like our frozen yogurt places in the U.S. where it´s self serve. So on Friday we make a few visits with a boy in our ward, Emerson. He needed to go back home at 3 to do some homework so we dropped him off then passed by the Bishop´s house to remind him about the game nights we´re going to have in the next few weeks. While we were there, Bishop mentioned that the day before was Emerson´s birthday!!! So when we left we were like "omg we have to do something!" And the Bishop just so happens to live on the same street at the ice cream place so as we passed by, we both knew what to do *smirk emoji face* so we went to Emerson´s house and said that we needed him for one more lesson and he was nice enough to go buuuuuut we surprised him with ice cream!!!!!! So we ate ice cream with him which he enjoyed :) 

-          Yesterday I watched the woman´s conference again because the stake here never showed it until now! So my companion hadn´t watched it yet so I got to see it again last night :) It was just as wonderful as I remembered. I just love Eyring.

-          Last P-day we went to a member´s house, the first counselor because I hadn't met him yet and they had just adopted a newborn baby so we had to go see!! And he told me that everyone in the ward was saying how sweet I am and that I don´t even look or act like an American and that they´re all loving me already! I´m also the first American sister ever here!!! So that made me SO happy because it´s always a missionary´s fear arriving in a new area and taking the place of another sister who everyone loved, but it´s going great! I´m LOVING everyone here and it´s good to know they´re liking me as well :)

Sooo this week we met 2 families that are part member families! In both cases, the husband is a less active and the wife isn´t a member. One couple went to church yesterday because they had moved into our area a year ago and never knew where the church was and yesterday they saw one and went! It wasn´t our ward but the elders there called us and gave us their address and names and we stopped by their house and introduced ourselves. He´s been wanting to return to church and the wife really enjoyed the church, too!!! Miracles!! The other couple traveled this weekend but they´re really great, too. The husband is less active and kind of got into bad habits but his family is the center of his life. We talked one night with them and she said that she always told him if he returned to church, she would go with him, be baptized and everything! So like…. WOW! We're now planning to work with him to help him back and help her learn more about the church :)

And now…..THE BEST PART!!!!! Sunday! Sunday was probably the best day of all because…………………. we had a miracle baptism! So there´s this adorable mother in our ward, Tcharlly. Her husband was the old bishop, but they´re both super young. They both served missions. Tcharlly actually served in the mission of my companion and she reactivated Sister Carvalho´s parents!!! And now Sister Carvalho is serving in the ward she's living in!!! It´s the cutest story ever. SOOOO she has a few sisters and a brother. Her brother is the 1^st counselor in our ward, one sister is on a mission, and the other is a youth in our ward. The other sister is Kilvia. Kilvia is 8 years old. She basically grew up in the church because of her siblings. Oh, and their parents were never baptized. Most of them were baptized in secret because their mom and dad never really liked the church back in the day. Their parents are now divorced and his dad is dating another woman, Marcia, who we're teaching. So Sunday…..they all showed up at church – her non member dad and Marcia, too. Tcharlly calls us out to the foyer and says, "Kilvia wants to be baptized. You can baptize her TODAY." So we were like…."WHAT OMG WOW WHAT SO MANY EMOTIONS!!!"  So we called our zone leaders and they rushed over and interviewed her, she passed, her dad signed the baptismal form, her brother baptized her, we called President and asked for permission for the family to confirm her (because normally recent converts have to be confirmed the next Sunday) and turns out it´s our bishop who authorizes the confirmation, which he obviously allowed, and so she was confirmed right after! Wow! It was a very happy day for them! I really felt like we did nothing! It didn´t even feel like our baptism even though it counts as ours because her parents aren´t members haha. She was truly a present given to us from God because we worked super hard this week and were super obedient! Our numbers this week were really great (because as missionaries we always have to have our goals in mind) and we exceeded all of our goals and for that, we were given this wonderful gift all wrapped up and ready! She is SUCH a great little girl, we talked with her a bit before the elders talked with her and she knew everything and is SOO smart. We asked her to give the prayer at the end and it was the cutest thing!!!! I´m so excited to get to know her more :)

So THAT was my week, family!!! Things are going really great! I love my companion, Sister Carvalho; she´s super sweet and loving and loves to have fun so we´re having a blast together J This place is already starting to feel like home! 

I love you all with my whole heart!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

TE AMO!

- Sister Parks

Maracanau, Brazil - Ch-ch-ch-ch-CHANGES!

Sooooooooooooooo this week was crazy and totally sad. But happy. And sad. But ended happy.

So, I was emergency transferred!! That´s right, I was kicked out of Messejana :(

So Tuesday afternoon, we had just finished a lesson with this adorable girl Vitoria who had gone to church and her mom has gone a few more times and they are both just so great! So we had finished talking to her and marked her baptism for that coming Sunday and we left and went to visit a less active. We had just sat down and were talking with her when we got a call. I picked up and it was the assistant to President Fusco. He asked who was speaking and I said, "Sister Parks" and he said "oh okay, sooo Sister Parks, you were transferred". I responded," WHAT?!" Sister Takahashi was sitting there looking at me like what happened?? So I whispered to her, "I was transferred!" And she then started to cry :´( So he told me that we had to go back to our house and I had to pack all my things and that Sister Takahashi´s companion would arrive soon and that I would have to go to my new area with a member. As we were heading back they called us again and said that no we wouldn´t move today but tomorrow. So the rest of the day I went to as many people as I could to say goodbye....some of my recent converts were really down in the dumps because they all thought I´d be staying because transfers were last week! The members too....it was hard saying goodbye to some of the families that have turned into my families here!
So it was a little sad but my new area, Maracanau is great! It´s a little farther out from the city which means it´s a little more poor. But I´m already loving the people and the ward and the area. It´s been a long time since I´ve been in a new area with new people but it´s going great! The picture yáll saw looks like I´m in a trio but the other sister was with my companion until I arrived. She was also getting a new companion. Lots of missionaries were emergency transferred this week. President closed a sisters' area in the country because I think he´s short on sisters so lots of us were moved around. 

So we went with 40 minutes today so I didn´t have time to write this email out beforehand and the time is up!
I´ll write more next week but I love you all!!!!!!

-Sister Parks

Messejana, Brazil - IT'S RAINING MEN

No. I wish. Lol just kidding. It´s been raining cats and dogs here! It´s like Fortaleza is on a set timer where every night at 10 pm it´s starts to pour and doesn´t stop until 10 am the next morning! And at night, it´s been storming and it´s sooo loud! I´ve never been scared of thunder until here. But I think that´s because the houses here are made a bit differently. The window in our room isn´t like normal windows in the US, it´s just shutters sooo thunderstorms are a bit louder here than back at home. But this week did get me thinking that this time of year it´s raining and storming in Texas, too! Have yáll had any crazy storms or flooding yet?

Well, yesterday and Saturday was General Conference!!! I was soo happy but now I´m so sad because it´s over :( It always comes and goes so fast. But it was great! There were a lot of great talks. I don´t have my notes with me but I filled up quite a few pages with notes! I remember from yesterday that I especially liked Elder Oak´s talk. I´ll be frank and say, he was killin´it. And of course, Holland. I was scared for a moment that he wasn´t going to speak but they saved him for last. And it was great! I want to listen to it again. I also have been loving the talks given by Elder Gong. It was wonderful and as always, made me a little nostalgic. It was so fun the years that me, Taylor, Matt, and Hil all went to Conference (sorry Trenton, you were technically there (in Utah) too but…on the mish) and spending the weekend at Taylor´s apartment so close to Temple Square and the Conference Center! Sorry you two, I know yáll miss Salt Lake and this is probably making it worse… I also thought about the times wayyy back when we´d watch conference at home and Mom would make donuts or cinnamon rolls. And Dad's singing. :)

But I really liked what Elder Holland said at the beginning of his talk, that it´s incredible how everyone watching in the whole world is gathered together and we all pray and sing together. There are so many things I never thought about that being here on the mission, in Brazil, has really helped me see. I was sitting in my chapel with the Messejana Stake watching the conference via satellite with Portuguese translation. They translate every part except for the music, and when we sing with the congregation, we open up their hymns to sing along too, even though it may clash a little with the English being sung. Conference is such a great and humbling experience!

This week I got a little sick butttttt it was my fault. I didn´t eat too well one day and the next day I was throwing up a lot. BUT have no fear, I had lots of “moms” taking care of me and Sister Fusco told me of 3 medicines to take and by the next day, I was already feeling better! But I did miss my mom :( It´s no fun being sick away from your mom. Or your dad who makes fun of you the whole time while also entertains you hahaha

So these past few weeks we´ve been reading in the Book of Mormon with Leko, Adeline, Aizaki (the 3 siblings that were baptized) as well as Rodrigo who was baptized too and their little friends Gabriel and Weskley. It´s super cute because every night we turn on their street they´re always there and ask us, “Are we going to read tonight?” And they´ll go and grab their Book of Mormon´s and we´ll all read a chapter. It´s been amazing to see how the gospel is helping our recent converts. Leko and Adeline and Rodrigo read the Book of Mormon every day under the trees as well as reading with us at night. And you guys don´t even know how much Rodrigo has changed! I remember the first night I met him with Sister R. Santos, he was honestly a little annoying and he is verrrry shy and is basically addicted to his phone and I didn´t think he would ever progress as an investigator but oh man was I wrong! He´s going to seminary every night with his Bible and his Book of Mormon, he isn´t on his phone as much, he talks and jokes not just with us but with the other youth in the ward, he´s going to mutual, and he was the only one out of the whole group who went to all 4 sessions of General Conference! AND on Saturday he introduced us to his sister and she already knew so much about us and the church because Rodrigo is always talking about us, she said! Haha this gospel is seriously a gospel of miracles :) Not that he needed to change or be cured or anything crazy like that, no, the littlest things can be miracles. He´s changing for the better and is growing in the gospel, the best place to grow.

WELL I´ll wrap up this novel now hahahaha sorry guys…..

All is well here in South America. I´m taking care of myself, and when I fail at that, I have others taking care of me lolool but seriously, please don´t worry about me! :) It´s allll good here!

TE AMO MUITO!!!

-          Sister Parks

Messejana, Brazil - Happy Easter!

Fam bam!

Happy Easter!!! A family in our ward gave us a lot of chocolate and I still had chocolate from my 1 year mark soooo we have a lot to eat! 

Well folks, this week was the last week in the transfer. Yesterday we got the call that……..WE´RE BOTH STAYING!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! You guys, I was totally thinking President was ready to kick me out of Messejana but I´m staying another transfer!! Everyone was saying that I was out of there (but in a sad, they´ll miss me way lol) because I´ve now been here 6 months but I´m staying!!!! I was thinking too that I wouldn´t be staying because of how much time I have here, but inside of me I felt that my time wasn´t up. I´m so happy I´m staying!!!!!!!!!!! But oh man it´s gonna be rough the day I leave…..BUT let´s not think about that day, shall we??

So yesterday we got to watch the Women´s Conference!! I loved that President Eyring spoke to us again this year! I think he likes us the most ;) The videos were also super cute! I liked how they talked a lot about service because, that´s basically what we do every single day as missionaries! I liked how President Eyring said that the Lord is not only preparing the hearts of others that we´ll serve but also our hearts. We need to be ready and worthy to help and uplift others. Which brings me to the first talk by Sister Esplin who talked about how we need to be thinking more about others than ourselves because we can´t help anyone if we´re worried about ourselves and our own lives. One of the great things about the mission is that we really don´t have time to think about ourselves and our own problems because every second we´re always thinking about those we´re teaching and who we can help next and what they need.

This week we were blessed withhhhhhhhhh another baptism!!!!! The girl who was baptized is Patricia and she is 12 years old! It was really a miracle because up until the baptismal interview she wasn´t really sure about being baptized. She said that´s she´s very of the world and does bad things and we were like…. Patricia, we all mess up every day! We´re not perfect! She seriously didn´t believe that WE, me and Sister Takahashi, make mistakes. She also had a fear that she won´t stay strong, stay active, in the church but when she looked at members who don´t go every Sunday she said, oh no, if I was baptized I would go every Sunday! Haha so she´s already got the determination! So she had her interview with our district leader and she passed! And yesterday she was baptized J It was great because we combined with the other ward who meets in our chapel and the baptismal room was full of people from both wards!! And the young women were very sweet to Patricia in welcoming her J

I´m going to attach a photo here in this email to send to yáll because….IT´S TOO DANG COOL!!! Leko (Wellington)(my recent convert with Sister R. Santos) designed me and Sister Takahashi!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Sister Takahashi gave him a picture of us and he drew us!!! It´s the coolest thing ever J

I´m SUPER SUPER SUUUUUUPER excited for General Conference. I was thinking back to last year watching General Conference in the MTC J It was so great! And the October conference was amaaaazing. I´m positive this conference will be just as great as the others! I´ll be preparing some questions to be answered and you guys should too ;) I seriously can´t believe I used to not look forward to conference when I was younger but I guess that´s normal for youth. But seriously, any youth who are reading this….if you prepare questions to be answered, conference will be a much more enjoyable and spiritual experience for you! I promise J What are yáll looking forward to most?

Have a wonderful week everybody!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Love you lots. Also, there´s a website called MissionTies that´s like DearElder but for the field!!! There´s a sister in our district who´s from Washington who literally receives like 10 letters every week because people write her through missionties! So it´s just an idea if you guys want to try that out! I love personal hand written cards, of course, but I don´t think why I haven´t received anything in weeks L Still no package or letters….but sometimes this just happens! I´ve had a lot of luck with the post service up until now haha but they´ll turn up J Remember, never write that a package has more than $20 dollars worth inside or I´ll be taxed a lot JThanks!!!!

LOVE YÁLL!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

-          Sister Parks

Messejana, Brazil - March 21, 2016

Heyyyyyyy everybody!!

Well this week was fun! We´ve been meeting lots of great, new people to teach! Some have gone to church, some have family already in the church, and others are starting fresh! For the past few weeks at family home evening at Andre´s house (pretty sure he´s been tagging me every Monday in the pics he´s posts on instagram) they´ve had a friend there – Amanda. For the longest time we tried to find her house but we always ended up at the wrong place haha but we finally found it this past week with help from a member! There we met her daughter who is 14 and is the cutest, prettiest, soft spoken little thing! Her name is Vitoria. So we started to teach them the lessons and Vitoria is just soaking them all up! She´s answering our questions perfectly and remembers everything we teach! Amanda is also really great but she´s  little more difficult to run into because she works a lot and only gets home at night...but it´s all work out! It´s really humbling and neat to see how the Lord prepares some people J

This week we went on splits with our sister training leaders. I took the place of one of them in their area while she took my place here. It was really cool to see another area and meet new people and to learn from another compainion. It was only for a day, we switched Friday morning and reunited Saturday morning. It was also really sweet coming back because everyone here was like, Sister Parks! You returned! Everyone that Sister Takahashi visited with the other sister asked where I was, if i had been transferred haha it was so cute to hear!! I love this place, have I said that already? Well, it´s true! Also when I came back and I walked into our house Sister Takhashi and Sister Macipe (STL) prepared a surprise for me! My desk was covered in pictures from my mission and family and they put out chocolate and on the wall they put up ballons and a sign that said, Happy 1 Year!! It was so cute! I feel so old on the mission hhahaha I can´t believe it´s been a year?!?! The day before my 1 yr mark I wrote in my journal about that day a year ago, saying goodbye to my family in the airport, arriving in salt lake thinking i´d never find trenton and then holly surprised me while I was waiting for my luggage then I stayed the night with her and the next day Trenton, Holly, Brooke, Caleb and Lauren all dropped me off at the MTC! It was a whirlwind of emotions! But I´m grateful for everyone those last few days J

It´s been a great week and it should be another good one J

I love you all SOOOOOOOOOOO muchhhhhh and miss y´all madly!

TE AMO

- Sister Parks

ps - it´s still hotter than hades. it´s been raining a lot though BUT here, after it rains, it gets hotter. so it´s always nice to get rain but after...the sun is so powerful I wanna die!

Messejana, Brazil - Look out Messejana, we´re baptizing everybody!

Hello family! This week was awesome! So many happy days J

Last Monday after we emailed we headed back home and just stayed there because….we were very lazy and tired and didn´t want to go anywhere. But we didn´t even end up taking naps because we just talked and talked and talked! This week has been super fun because Sister Takahashi is learning English! It´s now a rule on the mission that everyone has to study English every day for language study (except us Americans obviously), but that wasn´t a problem for Sister Takahashi because she´s been wanting to practice and learn more English! It´s pretty cute haha her whole wall is covered in post its with words that I´ve defined for her in English, and she made a video for her family talking in English because her dad and brother both speak English fluently and her sister can speak a little, too. She prays in English and we both share our personal study with each other in English. For those unfamiliar with the missionary schedule, in the morning we have 1 hour of personal study and then 1 hour of companionship study and we always share with the other what we read/what we learned in our personal study. So the first day she shared her personal study with me, I asked her if she wanted me to share mine in English or Portuguese. She said, do you think it´ll mess up your Portuguese? And I said, I don´t think so. And ohhh man was I right! For her it took 30 minutes to share what she learned in English and when it was my turn, I took 30 minutes too! Hahaha it was so funny how bad my English is! I kept going back to speaking Portuguese on accident. But it´s fun because in the house we speak English most of the time, her more than me. I speak 50/50 because honestly….it´s easier to speak in Portuguese now than it is to speak in English. It´s pretty funny when people ask me to say something in English or ask me how to say a certain phrase/word because I have to stop and think for a good minute and then when I say the word I usually pronounce it wrong haha I have to try like 3 times before I get it right. Soooo it´ll be interesting when I return! Please bear with me J

Referring to my subject line now, we had 2 baptisms this week!!!! 2 youth. Samuel, 12 years old, and Rodrigo, 16. Samuel was baptized on Saturday before mutual which was SO great because all the youth were there to show their support! The youth are seriously the best part of this ward. They´re so unified and most of them are recent converts and are the only members in their families but they´re all so great in supporting each other and inviting each other to activities. This past week we took Rodrigo to seminary and ended up staying and it was just wonderful! Really made me miss those days being a youth in the ward and my group of friends J shout out to the group – yáll know who you are! The other time Rodrigo went to seminary, 2 youth boys stopped by to pick him up! That made us so happy to see! Rodrigo was baptized on Sunday after church and that was great too because a lot of youth stayed to watch which is usually difficult because when church ends, everyone wants to go home to eat! But they all bore with us haha J Adeline and Samuel were both confirmed as members of the church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and both received the gift of the Holy Ghost! AND Padua, who me and Sister Alvarado baptized, received the Melchezideck priesthood omg I was so happy! I was so proud of him!!

It´s been fun being with Sister Takahashi because she´s made me open up more and joke around more J She´s helped me be more myself which is something that I kind of lost when I came here! Because of the language barrier, etc. But it´s gotten much better!

I miss you guys sooooooooooooooo much but my love for yáll surpasses my sadness J Yáll are SO GREAT and SO ADORABLE! How did I get such a cute family? I just want to squeeze you all! Especially dad hehehe but seriously, thanks for everything! Thanks for still writing me lol

Te amo para sempre!

-          -Sister Parks

Pictures: glasses pic – playing around and writing letters last p day

Sister takahashi in my hammock – she was protesting because I moved my bed back to put up my hammock to sleep in and she wanted me to be closer to her hahaha

Facebook hands – we found them in a members home and obvi had to take a picture haha

Baptism of Rodrigo!

Samuel´s baptism I brought my camera but left my battery plugged in a home…smart, I know. But Wleberton sent me pics that he took so ill forward those to you!

Messejana, Brazil - the 411

Hey guys!

This week…

Thursday we had a “game night” and us and our ward mission leader were in charge! So he came up with fun games/relays to play that incorporated missionary work! The first game we blew up ballons and put little pieces of paper inside them with questions about the scriptures or about missionary life like, what time does a missionary wake up? Silly things like that haha! The second game was a relay that represented Sunday´s when we go from house to house to pick our investigator´s who said they´d go to church. So we set up chairs and had 6 people stand at the back of the gym, behind the obstacle of chairs. Two boys from each time had to jump over a chair (it was lying sideways) and then run around another stack of chairs, grab an “investigator” and bring them to the front hahaha it was very entertaining! The other game we did was we blind folded two people and they had to make their way to us by listening to our voices while everyone else was yelling and screaming, trying to distract them. Didn´t really work out as well as we expected because we ended up having to yell too lol but it was meant to represent how we need to listen to the Spirit!

Saturday Adeline was baptized!! It went perfectly and just how she wanted! She didn´t want a lot of people, and she doesn´t like cake or ice cream OR soda so we had Doritos and juice haha because that´s what she likes! But it was great because her brothers Wellington and Aizaki were there (who were both baptized in Feb!) and we took lots of pictures haha. It was a happy day :) I love that family!!! Their mom is also wonderful. She goes to her church faithfully, but she always welcomes us into her home and is always worried about us haha she always asks if we´ve eaten. The other day I was having some stomach pain and she was so worried about me haha!

The days are flying by, the weeks are flying, and the months. I can´t believe it´s March. A year ago the days were flying by too fast, too, for when I´d be leaving on the mission. It´s strange to think about how I´ve been away for (almost) a year. But it´s been SO great! It´s crazy how much we learn on the mission, how much we see, how many people we meet. It´s weird to think about how many people I´ve met that I never imagined I´d meet in my life! They´ve made a mark in my life. I know I´ll cherish these memories forever. I wanted to say thank you really fast to my parents who allowed me to serve a mission. I KNOW it´s harder for parents, for our families back home. People always ask us, do you miss your family? How do you cope? But what we tell them is the truth, and I´m sorry if it´s a little harsh for you guys, but we don´t have time to think about our families! Our worries are so fixated on the people in our areas, the people we´re teaching, that we don´t have time to sit and think about our own lives. We´re always thinking about the lives of others, and what we can be doing to better help them. BUT you guys are ALWAYS in my heart and I love to look at the pictures I have with my family and my friends. My family is my world! I love you guys with ALL my heart!
I´ll stop now before I end up writing another paragraph haha but I just wanted you guys to know how much I love you all!!!!!!!! Seriously, y´all are the greatest. :)

Te amo MUITO!!!!

-          Sister Parks