Tootsie Pop

(Can I just say how amazing it was to see your wonderful faces?!?!?! I love you soooooo so so so so much!!)

People

I got a request for people so i´ll do that now. I have two favorite investigators. S and D. S is wonderful! We have been teaching her for a while now and she is so open and loves going to church! She is going to be baptized and her two daughters too! I love families! Also D. Oh D. He is the sweetest guy ever.But he is an alcoholic. And we have been working with him so much. We want him to change so bad. And he wants to change so bad too. We buy him halls for every visit we have with him that he doesn´t drink :) We pray for him a lot and I hope he can get through this. Thank goodness for the atonement. It really can show a person how much they are loved, no matter what they do :)

Plan of Salvation

Speaking of that, can I just say how dang wonderful the Plan of salvation is? There´s no way that God could not send us here and not have a plan for us. But because He is so loving, He already made one. And it´s so simple! And so unique and so special! It´s one of my favorite lessons to teach. If you haven´t read Preach My Gospel you should study it, because it is wonderful :)

Christmas

Christmas is wonderful! I love being here talking about the gospel! I had a realization this week of how wonderful it is to be a missionary. Especially during this time. It´s beautiful and marvelous and I wouldn´t ask for anything more. Jesus Christ lives. People should know about that! The day was wonderful overall. We had lunch at a members house, who I absolutely adore, and then dinner at a recent converts house who is the absolute cutest person ever! We sang, ate, talked, laughed and more importantly, I got to see your wonderful faces! People in my life are pretty awesome. Thats all I got to say. I love you all.

Random

We ordered brazilian pizza! I have honestly never tasted anything more better. (lie) But it was awesome! I have pictures but the computer is being weird so i´ll show you next time! Also! Guess who found oreos here? Yup. Who knew?!?!?!? Some stories. Sister Jane used the oven with the glass on top and it exploded. That was fun. ;) I walked in the rain this week. No umbrella. IT WAS SO MUCH FUN. And you know what they say. Every time you do that, your husband is more handsome ;) Kaching. We had a Zone party this week! So much fun! We did a gift exchange and everyone brought food and we had a little party :) I love my zone :) SO WONDERFUL!!! This week an investigator asked me and Sister J to sing in english. We sang I Am A Child of God. It was the weirdest thing. Singing in english. I actually teared up a bit because it has been so long :P It was so weird singing in my own language.

I have written here Ecclesiastes 12:7. I don´t know why. I remember it being cool!

Tootsie roll pop. Sorry, this week is going to be lame.....

So it was either tootsie roll pop or chocolate covered liver. I decided to choose tootsie pop. Point is that sometime the outside of things are better than the inside of things. Just like relationships. Every day it´s good to think of yourself and how you can better yourselves, but you have no idea how good it feels to think outside of yourself. There are so many people you can help, so many people you can touch. And once you forget about yourself and look on the outside, you have no idea how much everything changes. You are happier. You realize the true marvelous divinity of everyone.Other things that you worried about before, don´t matter as much. Gosh, being on a mission is amazing. Anyways. That´s my really lame comparison. Just think of others :) Yup.:)

 It´s so wonderful. Love the people around you! Everyone is so amazing!

I love you all! You mean so much to me! Keep being wonderful and keep smiling! We are in life! We should smile!!! :)

Sister Parco!

Legos

Sorry that it will be short, but I sent a lot of photos!

Christmas!!!

We had a Christmas conference! The whole mission came and it was pretty cool! And the food there was stellar too, which of course you know is one of my favorite things in life ;) Also, we had talks from our presidents. It is super crazy how similar they are to President Naatjes. I could see him becoming a president someday. But they are like a Brazilian version of them. So hilarious

Also, we went caroling as a ward to less actives! It was so much fun! And they loved it! One lady teared up as we were singing. It reminded me of home. I hope that you guys did Christmas caroling! Because I love that tradition! And if you didn´t... do it tomorrow, kay?! ;)

Also, fam, how was sacrament meeting? I always loved Christmas sacrament meeting :) Such a wonderufl Joy. This is why I´m here. Not for personal desires, but for Christ. It was nice to be reminded of that during this tough week.

Legos

So. I decided that the gospel is like legos. SO SIMPLE. And like the lego packet, it comes with instructions and how to create these wonderful fantastic lego creations! It´s so amazing. And so simple. And so planned out. If we use our free will and look at the instruction manual, you don´t know the wonderful things we can create! God is so simple but yet so great!

I want to wish everyone a very Merry Christmas! Love your family. There will come a day when you miss them very much. Love Christ. Love what he did for us. Don´t forget the pain he went through. Don´t forget the love he had for us. Expecially during Christmas, know that he lives. Know that he loves you individually. Christmas is truly miraculous. A time where we can pause and think. What is Christ to me? I love my Heavenly Father. I love my older brother Jesus Christ. I know the Gospel is true. I know it. I live it. I love it.

I love you all! Merry Christmas!!!!

Love

Sister Parco

Escalators

Sorry that it is going to be a bit short, but I wanted to send pictures and respond to people!

Advice:

Read Alma 26 and tell me that Ammon isn´t a boss. Also read 2 Corinthians 4, but pay attention to the CR in it. It´s amazing how all scriptures fit perfectly together!

Stuff:

I sewed my umbrella and purse this week! Who knew that my first use of it wouldn´t be on clothes? ;) It´s not pretty, but it will do ;) The ward had a chuhaska this saturday. FLIPPING GOOD. So much meat and food. I think I ate more then then I ever have at thanksgiving which was good because we didn´t have thanksgiving, right? ;)

Firsts:

First poisonous spider in our apartment. It was huge. Surprisingly i wasn´t scared though ;) First cockroach. That was fun. First talk at church. They say I speak pretty well and have a spanish accent! Crazy huh? First hot shower. Turns out I was turning the spout too much and I always thought that we only had cold showers.. Whoops. ;) First bible basher. AND first fast for a mission which worked out wonderfully! The Lord really blessed us this week which I will talk about next week!

Escalator:

So, this week, I was impatient. Again. ;) So, I decided to compare it to walking down an up escalator. A lot of the times in your life you are thinking you are going the right way. And are angry at the obstacles that stop you, or the people that are going up the escalator. And you get frustrated and wonder why people aren´t going the way that you are going. BUT if you just stop´and wait, you will find yourself going up the escalator instead of trying to go your own way and go no where. crazy huh?

Love you all!

Sister Parco

Slinkies

ADDRESS CHANGE:

 

So turns out I had the wrong address the whole time and just found out today from my brazilian companion that it was wrong so here it is

 

Sister Alyssa Michelle Parco

Brazil Curitiba South Mission

Praca Joseph Smith 15

Portao

80610 210 (THIS IS THE DIFFERENT PART)

Brazil

 

First of all, I´d like to ask for forgiveness. Yup. I forgot my camera cord so no pictures again. Please forgive me. I will repent. I promise! ;)

 

(So, I just want you to know that even if I don´t respond individually, I love you all SO much and want to respond individually. BUT. I read every single one of your letters and think of them very much!)

Answers to questions:
(O my dear loving mother who I love so very much)

 

Where am I? Gralha Azul!   It´s like  a suburb of Curitiba. Just like farmington! What do I live in? A lovely wonderful apartment that we cleaned today! It´s great and is in a gated apartment complex. As far as walking goes, we walk to most of our appointments, but to get to our district meeting, we take the bus!!! :) It´s crazy how similar it is to farmington! Just a bit less advanced, a little more dirty, and way more people. It´s crazy. you think there is only one house when you first go to clap (equivalent to knocking) but then there is about 4 or 5 houses stacked behind it that only have one little room. It really is crazy and humbling. Some people only have the necessicties. Which I really love. Because really, that´s all we need, isn´t it? It´s crazy how normal it is. It´s so normal being here. The houses are pretty much the same, and they have a tv, computer and other electronic stuff. Same stuff we have. It´s not much different. It´s more the house than the things in it that is different. It´s how old they look and worn down. Theres holes in the wall and the doors are off there hinges and stuff like that. But I think that is just the way it is. And we have been in a variety of houses. Rich apartment to humble little homes. It really is wonderful. I think that that is my favorite part. Meeting so many different friendly people and getting to talk to them about something I love is just wonderful! And people are so kind and loving here. They are happy to invite you into their house and listen to you. They are very open. Like Minnesota and the minnesota nice, but I think way more open. I think it´s because everyone lives so close. There is literally so many people in one area that they have to get along. Hardly anyone has a yard that is only theirs. Anyways, that´s a bit of me answering questions!

About Brazil!

 

Dogs. A lot of dogs. Stray dogs, dogs with owners. Everyone has dogs. And everyone walks. There are cars here but a lot of people walk because it is so nearby. Annd cars are super expensive here so I think people would rather not buy them :) That´s about it. Nothing much different than before. You´d be surprised how similar it is to the us here. They have so many products or at least knock off products that are like the U.S.

 

Things I´m grateful for this week:

 

Good shoes. My gosh. Thank goodness for these babies. I am glad I got those things because I don´t know how I would survive without them. I love to show them off. AND they are waterproof. Just like it said which is beautiful! We picked well Mama Bamma! Expressions on people´s faces. I am so grateful for this because even when I don´t understand what they are saying, I can still laugh or do a sad face depending on their reaction. Isn´t it wonderful how we are all alike in this way? Talking to babies. Another thing. Because no matter what language it is, I can still do it :) But the language is going well!

 

Days:

 

Well. It happened. I had one of those days this week. One day this week, all of our appointments fell through. We only had one appointment that day. It was discouraging and a little frustrating. But I know that it is apart of the work. AND our very last appointment, the person served us pão de quejo, so of course that made the day all better ;)

(SPEAKING OF SISTER F, THE MISSION PRESIDENT´S WIFE SAID SHE´LL TRADE ME A PÃO DE QUEJO RECIEPE FOR OUR LUMPIA RECIPE, SO YOU GUYS SHOULD GET THAT TO ME SO WE CAN TRADE :) I PROMISE YOU WON´t REGRET IT :) COOL HUH?)

 

Experiences:

We had a miracle this week. This week we ran into a girl named G. She had already heard the gospel before and went to church when she was young but never continued or got baptized. Well. We ran into her and gave her the first lesson and she agreed to everything. The spirit was seriously so strong. I love being out here. Also. This week a portuguese family wanted me to say the prayer in english. It was absoulutely hilarious. I was struggling to find words because I´ve been saying my out loud prayers only in Portuguese. It´s starting to happen! ;)

Slinky:

From the bad day I decided to base this thing on patience. I don´t know how I´m going to keep this up because they are getting more and more absurd, but oh well ;) Anyways. Slinkies. When I was a kid, the only thing I wanted to do was make that slinky go all the way down the stairs. And like this week, I wanted some things to work out that didn´t. But one thing I know is that it takes some effort. Maybe you were holding the slinky wrong. Perhaps you had the wrong carpeting. Perhaps you pushed too hard. There are so many things that you can do wrong. But. We forget one thing. Based on the law of gravity, that slinky has to go down one way or another. And because of this law everything will work. You will get that slinky down the stairs because, well, it´s the law of physics. So is our righteous desires. If what we are desiring is right, God will help us get our desires. Perhaps not our way, but it will happen, simply because it is the law of physics.

 

Anyways. That´s It. I´ll repent with the pictures! I love you all so so so much and still think of you every day!

Love,

Sister Parco

Treadmill

Random things of the week:

I ate cows tongue. That was nice. In all truth, it wasn't bad at all! Tasted just like chicken ;) A lot of people think that i´m from argentina. Who would have thought right? ;) I´m hoping that applies to my accent ;) There's this thing called Pão de Quejo. Literally called bread of cheese. Probably the best thing I have ever had in my life. You should Google it. And then drool over it. Other random thing- we were just talking to people on the street and guess who we run into? Yup. I go up in my broken portuguese and he is like ... uhhh.... I don´t speak english.... HALLLELUJIAH. It was funny. We talked to him for a while and he invited us to come into his family´s home a different day. SO FUNNY

 

My companions:

I love my companions! they are wonderful! I have Sis M who is portuguese and Sis J who is from my district! It´s awesome! We all get along and are having a wonderful time out in the field! I will try and send pictures if I have time. But there were so many emails to respond to so I don´t know if I can this week, but next monday for sure!

 

Things of the week:

So guess who our trainer is. Yup. Sister correlation leader. Guess what that means. Yup, she leaves for a whole day. Haha guess what happened this week. Yup. Just this. Here is the punchline. What do you get with 2 americans 2 weeks in and a hispanic 6 weeks in? Surprisingly. MIRACLES. Even though all three of us didn't know the language that well, the day was wonderful and inspiring! It really is wonderful when you can testify of something you know so powerfully. Because any one of any language can feel the feeling of a testimony. Words seem to come off easier from my mouth when I bear my testimony. It truly is wonderful!!

 

Food:

 

THE BOMB. That´s all I have to say. Pretty much we just eat one meal a day. Lunch. We have this huge lunch and pretty much don´t think about the other meals. I hardly ever eat dinner. IT IS SO FLIPPING GOOD. We always have beans and rice like they say everywhere. I get so full from it. And meat. There is always meat. I tried my first portuguese hot dog. They put more stuff than our hot dogs! Ours look so weak! ;) They are so flipping good :)

 

People:

The people here are so patient. They are so kind with us and our language. And so patient. They say we are speaking well! What a relief! They are so loving! Everyone greets everyone and everyone says hi in the streets. It kind of reminds me a little of minnesota. So friendly. It is seriously so warm here. (People and climate haha) strangers we greet with a kiss on the cheek and a hug. Complete strangers. I love it. And they love to talk. They love to talk and laugh. They could talk all day long with us if they wanted :) I can´t wait until i get to that point where I can talk with them too :) I cannot wait.

 

Treadmill:

I couldn't think of any other word besides treadmill to describe this week. (Shout out to people who like running) This was quite a treadmill seeing as the thing was already on when I stepped on it and was already on 10 miles per hour. That´s what this week was like at first. But I´m very excited that I´m building my muscles. Even though it hurts. BUT What doesn't kill you makes you stronger. And I know that my trainer knows what he´s doing. A lot was learned this week. I think a big thing that I learned was faith. There are so many times when you have that chance to doubt something. The ability of yourself. The decision that you have made. The diligence you are putting out. But the thing is why worry. Where doubt is, fear is not. Where Faith in Christ is, miracles are. SO, why don´t we trust in Christ more! It´s absolutely wonderful all of the things he´s provided for us. It took God to create the earth in 6 days. If you think about the earth. Half of the stuff we don´t need. But why is it there? Because he put it there so that we could have joy. He put it there so we could smile a little as we saw an amazing flower or some sort of amazing creature or creation we probably wouldn't have noticed. The other thing I really realized this week was the power of Christ´s atonement, which is also for us. I was reading in Matthew when Christ was washing the apostles feet. And Peter said. Oh you don´-t have to Christ. But then Christ responds something along the lines of if you don´t let me wash your feet, you don´t know me or something like that. So it is with the atonement. If we don't take advantage of the atonement and how Christ payed for our sins and sincerely repent of our sins, we won´t know Jesus Christ. It really is beautiful. And I love talking about it. The gospel is wonderful! BE GOOD.

I love you all and can´t wait to email you again on monday! Please take care! You are in my prayers!

Love,
Sister Parco