Messejana, Brazil - Baptism and Birthdays and Talks!

Happy birthday this week, Hil!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Everyone´s just growin up all around me! I love you sooo much and miss being with you nearly 24/7 lolol we were the weirdest but I love you anyways :) Happy birthday!

This week on Wednesday was Sister Alvarado´s birthday!! She turned 21! We made pancakes in the morning and eggs but it was weird to eat pancakes without maple syrup! They don´t have it here! But it was still good :) I made her a little sign and put it on her desk along with a pack of skittles and sour patch! 

We also had a baptism yesterday!!!! Which apparently you guys found a picture of! So cool! His name is Eleonardo, and he´s the guy standing next to me. He´s been a miracle! He´s had a drinking problem for over 20 years but has been turning his life around and has come to church the past 3 weeks and was baptized yesterday! The ward has been great in welcoming and helping him, and there were lots of people at his baptism which reminded me of Mom and Dad’s conversion story where they were shocked at how many people were at their baptism that they didn´t even know! Wards are truly families :)

We also started teaching this awesome kid, Cleberson, who´s just the sweetest and is accepting everything we teach! Unfortunately, he went out of town yesterday but you bet we´ll get him to church next week! 

Tuesday we got a call from the second counselor and he asked to talk to me and what does he ask?? If I can give a 15-minute talk on Sunday!!!!! I then responded, “I can´t talk in Portuguese for 15 minutes!! Haha kidding of course!” So in my limited time during the week I wrote my talk - the gospel of Jesus Christ and the two very important people who made it possible that we have the restored gospel of Jesus Christ - Jesus Christ and Joseph Smith! So Sunday comes along and I´m a little nervous because I don´t think it´s long enough but I get up and talk and when I sit back down, I look at the clock and realized I talked for 15 minutes!!!!!!!

I was very happy and people were very nice afterwards and said that I speak very well for only being here 3 months and that I didn´t look nervous at all! WOOH! 

Today we´re going to have lunch with one of our favorite families and then go to another family to make Mom´s chocolate chip cookies!! Their son is leaving on a mission next month to Argentina and he´s super awesome! 

Love you guys!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

- Sister Parks

Messejana, Brazil - First Week in Messejana!

Sooooo last night at like 10:20 we got a phone call from our district leader saying that President wants to have a conference tomorrow (today) and we have to be at a certain chapel by 7:40. We were like.... what?? Tomorrow´s p-day! Soo yeah, that´s why I´m emailing so late. Anyways, President cut our email down to 40 minutes which is suuuuper sad and right now I already only have 22 minutes left! :(

But anyways,
HAPPY BIRTHDAY TRENTON!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
You´re awesome and I love you a lot annnnnd I found your future wife :) my companion!
She´s from Guatemala so yáll can speak Spanish together!!! She goes home after this transfer ;)) hahaha I forgot my camera because we went straight to the lan house after our conference so I don´t have pics this week :(

Anyways, this week!! Transfers here are super different! We got a call last week while emailing (when I was still in Jose Walter com Sister Santos) saying I was being transferred. And you leave that day for your area before p-day ends and you don´t have any time to say bye to people! However, after emails we ran to see Gustavo (recent convert who knows English and he was like my best friend! I always had questions for him and he helped me a lot!) to say goodbye then we ran back to the house and I quickly packed everything and we had to find a member to give us a ride to Messejana. There Sister Santos met up with another sister who was also training to go meet the new missionaries and I stayed with my new companion! Sister Alvarado is my new companion. She´s from Guatemala, has a strong accent still haha, but she is sooooo sweet and so nice and I love her already! I´m excited for this transfer :) but also nervous because she´s leaving after this transfer which means I have to take over the area and show my new companion the ropes! Ah! But oh man, it is so nice not be in training anymore! Yesterday I hit my 7-month mark which means I basically was in training for 7 months of my mission!! I´m excited for this fresh start though as much as I miss those I left behind in Jose Walter. That´s definitely the hardest part on the mission! Also! Sister Santos is training a girl from ROUND ROCK!!!!! I asked her if she knew Alex and she did! She´s friends with Ingrid, if I remember correctly. Haha small world, right??
This week I finally got my mission card!!! Wooh I have my own money!!!! Also the stores here are already selling Christmas things which is normal, you know, America does the same thing, but the weird part about it here is that it's not cold!!! I literally forgot Halloween is this week!!!
ahhh 8 minutes this is the worst :((((((

Everyone thinks I'm from Germany! The area is great! Everyone has welcomed me with open arms and we made a lot of new investigators this week which is exciting!!!
Also I bought a hammock and I sleep in it and it's the best!!! I forgot my camera though so next week I'll be sending lots of pics!!



LOVE YOU ALLL SOOOOOOOOOOO MUCH

- Sister Parks

Jose Walter, Brazil - hey fam!

I´m being transferred!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Oh man I am so sad to be leaving!!! Everyone here was convinced that Sister Santos would be leaving so that I would take over the area and such but no! I´ve been transferred to Messejana and my companion is a Hispânica!  Sister Santos said I really need to focus on my Portuguese because even if my new companion is fluent in Portuguese (which she is) she´ll say things differently because she´ll have an accent! So ohhhh mannn I´m nervous!!! Wish me luck! I´m so sad to be leaving this area because I´ve come to love all the people here but the Lord has called me elsewhere and I will go where He wants me to go! 

You guys - it´s so funny - I can´t speak English anymore! Yesterday we went on splits (I´ll write about that later!) and I met this guy who´s been studying English for years on his own and he spoke VERY WELL! So I tried to talk to him a little bit in English but it was so weird because I had to say the simplest sentences because I was basically translating what I usually say from Portuguese to English! I don´t know if that makes sense but here´s an example. Here they say "que lago" a lot which means that´s cool/how cool! but like, that´s kinda weird to say in English, you know? But I was saying, "that´s cool!" to his responses lolol also sometimes he´s be speaking to me IN ENGLISH and I´d immediately start responding in Portuguese! Also sentences here are formatted differently than English so my English was coming out all weird lolol also this past week while I was explaining a scripture I had shared with one of our less actives Eduardo he stopped me and said I was talking too fast! ME! Hahahha I legit asked, "Me??" Hahahhaa guess I´m truly becoming a Fortalezean. Also my memories are in Portuguese which is weird haha like I´ll be thinking of a time with the fam or friends and the conversations we had I´ll think in Portuguese which is so weird haha!

So yesterday we went on splits because we had no member present lessons this past week and we needed to make that up as well as make new investigators so me and Sister Santos split up with two girls from the ward to just tract and make new investigators and I wasn´t scared at all!! The girl I went with was so scared and barely talked but get this - I was fine!  I was talking so much I was so proud of myself! I asked questions, got to know the people, gave them a pamphlet, told them a little bit about it, and prayed with them! I was like, who is this girl?? By the end of the exchange, I had made 10 novos! 

WELL I´ll be leaving sometime today, we don´t know what time yet! No one has called us yet to tell us! Sister Santos will be training again! Haha!

But hey, I´m excited for the new change! I´m excited to see more of Brasil!!

LOVE YOU GUYS SO MUCH AND MISS YA A TON!

Amo vocês!!

-Sister Parks

Jose Walter, Brazil - HAPPY BIRTHDAY MOM!!!!!!!

I have some pictures just for youuuuuuuuuuu!!! The last one with the pillow was taken today haha. We went to buy some paper to write our scripture to memorize for the week on and I saw this pillow and asked the owner if I could take a picture with it! He joked and said a picture would cost 15 dollars hahahaha but he said of course! I told him it was your birthday yesterday :) what the pillow says is true, I love you Mom!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! the other two pics are with some of the kids I talked about in my last email! These 3 are the ones who are really dedicating themselves to memorizing the articles of faith! I told them last week that your birthday was on Sunday and I asked them if they could sing parabens (happy birthday) for you and then they had the idea of making you a sign!!!! :)))) I LOVE YOU MOM!!!!! HAPPY HAPPY HAPPY BIRTHDAY!!!!!!!!!!!!

This week has been great! So many awesome things! We went on exchanges this week and I was staying in our area which really made me nervous but our STL who came to be with me was so awesome and so nice and helped me relax and we met 7 new investigators! #knockingondoorsandaskingforwateralwaysworks ;)

And of courseeeeeeeeeeeee, GENERAL CONFERENCE!!!!!!! So Taylor guessed right, we had conference at 1 and 5 pm. Saturday at 11 we watched the Women's Conference too! I watched it all in Portuguese which was a little sad because I didn´t understand everything but I still got a lot out of Conference! These past few weeks the Light of Christ has been standing out to me. In the scriptures, in the Liahona (which I receive every month in English!) and then I watch conference and OUR PROPHET gives a talk about the light of Christ as well as a few others!!! I´m so excited to get the Conference issue of the Liahona because I didn´t catch some talks (Uchtdorf´s OR Holland´s - my 2 favs!!) but it was awesome and I tried to look for Hilary and Trenton but I forgot which sessions they were at! Also, I totally (for the first time since arriving in Brasil!) CRIED! Yes, I cried! We all got up to sing "How Firm a Foundation" and we were singing it in Portuguese and I looked at the screen at the English lyrics and I saw the words, "fear not; I am with thee, o be not dismayed, for I am thy God and will still give thee aid. I'll strengthen thee, help thee, and cause thee to stand" omg the tears poured out of my eyes! I had sooo much nostalgia while watching conference and missed going with my siblings, missed watching them at home years ago with the fam and eating donuts or cinnamon rolls made by mom, missed hearing the actual voices of the prophet and apostles, missed BEING IN UTAH (can you believe it? haha!) and the past few days I think I had put so weight and pressure on my shoulders trying to be better, trying to speak more, trying to understand more, and felt a little alone. I had written some questions down that I wanted to be answered during conference and that was a response! I know He will strengthen me and help me! He is truly the light of the world! We can find eternal happiness in this gospel! I am so grateful for the chance we had to hear our Prophet and the Apostles speak to us. They are truly called of God and I KNOW without a doubt in my mind that this church is the true church! 

Mom I love you! I´m so grateful for you and I remembered the other day being your bodyguard for trips to H-E-B and missed those days! but I hope you had an awesome birthday and I love you!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

LOVE YOU ALL 

Jose Walter, Brazil - hiiiiiiiiiiiii

Hello! hi! How´s it going?

I spent a lot of time reading emails so I don´t know how much I´ll be able to get written here!This week was tough, man! There were a lot of setbacks for us in our area that were hard, but it has just given us more motivation to work harder! We had a lot of people drop us and we had to stop teaching others who weren´t progressing. So this week we´ve been trying to meet new people to teach! There´s one adorable girl we started teaching from the English class who just loves us!

This week I have witnessed a miracle! I am understanding so much!!! I´m studying a lot to try and say more but mannnnnn Portuguese is difficult!! Do you know I haven´t cried since I´ve gotten here......? Isn´t that weird??? Still pressing forward!

Wooooow I have no time... I´m so sorry, but I really wanted to respond to some people.

Still working hard and loving the work! I´m soooo excited for Conference this week and President has asked us to go with 3 questions to be answered! I don´t know if I'll get to listen to the sessions in English.... I'm guessing not which is a little sad because I want to understand everything but it´ll still be great! This week President has asked us in our district meeting to study this talk about Christ and how we can know Him better, so we made a goal as a district to study the New Testament (which I already made of goal of reading (I'm in Luke and it´s awesome!)  and Jesus the Christ which I´ve never read before and I´m so excited to read it!!! I want to know Him better, I want to testify and have no doubt in my mind that He is my Savior! I know that He loves me, I know that He knows my pain and that He CAN help me. I have seen His hand in my life, especially here in Brasil! I am never alone.

I love you all so much and miss yáll a ton!!!

Amo vocês! 

- Sister Parks

pic 1 the tiny nutellas here!

pic 2 - #thezone

Jose Walter, Brazil - It's a scorching

Is that even a word? I´m sure it´s spelled wrong even if it is. Also, I apologize for my spelling errors. Every word I type is underlined in red haha so I don´t have auto correct to help me here! But yeah, it´s hot here! The other day someone said, "We have two seasons here. Hot, and very hot!" Haha and it´s true!

I forgot to mention in my email last week that we had Stake Conference the day before (so not last Sunday but the one before that)! President and Sister Fusco came (my mission president and his wife) and both talked. President Fusco basically told the members to stop feeding us so much and making us fat hahaha. He said that when we go home, we won´t get married if they continue to do so!! Haha so as usual, we usually have some members who just give us money, but two times this past week we had lunches fall through! So we kept blaming them on President Fusco hahaha but don´t worry, we didn´t go hungry!

So there´s this street in our area that is filled with a bunch of kids who are recent converts. They´re my favorites! This past week I had the idea instead of reading them a scripture (that they would shortly forget) we should see if they knew the articles of faith! They didn´t know them so some of them have started to memorize them! We write them down on paper and if they memorize 3, we buy them chocolate! We have this one adorable girl, Raissa, who is now on number 6! She´s so cute! Every time we see her she runs up to us and starts quoting the one she´s currently memorizing! Also the other day we were passing by and (side note - here in schools they call teachers Tia or Tio like how we say Mr or Ms) they started calling to us "Tia! Tia!" and they draggged us into one of the girl´s homes and there´s a cat on her couch cleaning her newborn baby! We then witnessed the birth of another kitten haha they were all freaking out ahahaha but I was too ;)

This week we met an awesome new investigator, Junior. He´s 15 and already has so much faith! He had an older brother who was baptized when he was a kid but passed away. But he told us experiences he´s had where his prayers were answered and Heavenly Father was really looking out for him. We invited him to be baptized but he said not right now because he doesn´t want to mess up again! We QUICKLY informed him that none of us are perfect and we still make mistakes every day, so hopefully he´ll come around! He´s an awesome kid though!

This week we also met an awesome 19-year-old guy named Zach! We were talking in the street with one of our former investigators (she didn´t want to quit smoking and drinking) and this guy on a motorcycle totally turns around and comes up to us asking about our church, our doctrine, and we´re like woooah woah take it easy! Lol not really, but we asked him his name, his age, and gave him a pamphlet, but he took off before we could get his address! Then, the other day we´re walking down the street and lo and behold, who drives up next to us?! Zach! He had more questions so we stepped off to the side in the shade and talked a bit and asked where he lived so that we could come and share our message that will answer all his questions! Buuuut he wouldn´t give it to us! He was a little wary haha but we we were like, "hey, we´re not stalkers! If you tell us you don´t want us to come by, we won´t!" But he still didn´t give it to us. So we invited him to the English class we were having that night and he said he´d come! Well, 7 pm rolls around (it now starts at 6 and ends at 7) and he shows up with a friend hahaha so he sat in for the end. Then the Elders talked to him a bit about the class; then they left. But when we walked out of the chapel with the Elders, they were there again and they asked when we have church! So the Elders told them about their sacrament meeting (I think he lives in their area) and on Sunday he and his friend were at church! Not our ward and I´m guessing not in our area, but I hope he starts taking the lessons with his friend! 

Gahh running out of time but this week I´was just so happy and so grateful for this time I have to be a missionary! This week I hit my 6 month mark and I found myself sad about that! Which is awesome! Haha the mission is hard, but it´s full of blessings! I have met so many amazing people here as well as in Provo. I´m so grateful for the chance I had to wait for my visa in the Provo Mission. I will always cherish those people and that mission in my heart! I´m grateful for my family and I really missed you all this week but I´m grateful for the knowledge we have that families are eternal! I love you all so much, I love my Savior and I know that this church is true! I´m grateful to be His missionary and to help do His work among these wonderful Brazilians!

Have an awesome week and eu amo voces!!!!!!!

- Sister Parks

Jose Walter, Brazil - Hello hello!

How´s my wonderful family doing? I so very much enjoy all your emails updating on how yáll are doing and what´s going on in your lives! If it wouldn´t freak yáll out I´d just read your emails and be done with email time! Alas, I know yáll want to hear how I´m doing, too. So, here goes.
Brazil´s Independence Day really wasn´t too eventful. We weren´t asked to go in early or anything, so we just went out like usual at night. If anything, the bar that we live a few houses down from seemed a bit more loud and crowded, but that´s about all I noticed! So funny it was the same day as Labor Day! Haven´t seen any signs yet for Olympics, Dad, but oh man, I´m excited for that!
This week we had a mission conference and the day before the assistants to the president called me and told me that President wants me to give the opening prayer............AHHHHHHH!! I freaked out but accepted and the next day butchered a prayer! Hahahaha no I´m sure it wasn´t that bad.... I hope. But it was great and President has the perfect mixture of humor and spirituality. He talked about death at the end and how we should think about death more often. If we were to die now, what would people think of us? And of course, he talked a lot about Christ and I´m just so grateful for my Savior! I truly know that He died for me and three days later, He was resurrected. I know that we will be resurrected too and that we´ll have the opportunity to live with Him and our Father and our families together forever! I´m so grateful for that. Yesterday we had an awesome meeting with the hilarious Nixon (2nd counselor to our bishop) and the ward missionaries and he basically called them all to repentance and told them they need to be finding people for us to teach haha it was great, though! I really think the work will pick up here which is awesome!
This week we had rain!!! Not a lot though and it usually goes back to being sunny by noon but yay for rain!! Sort of. The first day it rained was the day we had our zone conference and we had to walk a long ways to the chapel and of course, I wore my nicer shoes (not my chacos) because we usually dress up nicer for meetings and such, and oh my gosh it was miserable! The water just stayed in my shoes and every step I took I felt like I was going to slip and die!! Haha but the streets haven´t filled up like I´ve heard which is disappointing hahahaha jk.
The English classes were all right! I actually only went to one. And I wrote the wrong days last week (got them confused when translating). We have them Wednesday and Friday from 7:30 to 8:30. The first class we had a whopping 4 people! But it was cute and we just taught them the basics, like I, we, us, you, you all, them, and a little conversation. "What´s your name? My name is _____. Nice to meet you. Nice to meet you, too. I am a student. I am a student, too." Hahaha but it was super fun! The second day there were only 2 people :( and the 2 American elders were already there before us so me and Sister Santos just went back to work. We´re going to move the time up though to be earlier so that we´ll hopefully get more people! So we´ll see how this week goes!
Gahh I´m sorry I can never remember what happens in the week!

I love you all so much and I truly truly truly felt all your prayers this week!!!! I was happy and had an awesome week and I know that´s because of yáll! The language is still tough but I´m really hammering at it during my language study and at night and I really think I´m improving!!!

EU AMO VOCÊS!!!!!

- Sister Parks


the pic is of us and a member Luciano who joins us some days for visits haha he´s literally crazy but he knows everybody so he´s great! he reminds me of my good friend Matthew Podrebarac! shout out to you Matt, I love and miss you!!