Monday, August 25, 2014

Choice

People

Remember V, the one who read the book of mórmon in the library? Well, her mom stopped us from visiting her. It makes me so dang sad. She was seriously perfect and loved everything we taught. We´d go over there and she´d have the book of mórmon waiting for us open waiting to tell us what she read. And she told us that going to church was a little bit of what she thought heaven would be like. She said she felt so good there and Always stayed all 3 hours and sometimes 4 if there was a baptism. It makes me so sad and frustrated that the mom can´t see how this is changing her. But, I know one day in the future, she´ll be able to have a second chance. The time just isn´t now :/

Remember A? hahah so the last lesson was a little strange that was about a week and a half ago, and we were thinking about it and we came to the conclusion that he was actually a pastor of a church. So we went there again this week. And I think he totally knew that we knew. Turns out that he wanted to hear our lessons to teach to his congregation. But the last lesson was awesome. We testified to him like a boss, told him what choice he was making, and left it there with an invite in the end. And he felt and understood everything. It was sad to see that knowing that it was true he still would continue, but we plan to go over there to see how he is. 

G is a menos ativo, she´s great! We had a noite familiar com ela!

Man, I want to tell you about everything, but unfortunately I only have 5 minutes. SO. Just want to tell you guys that I love you alls oooooo much! And I´m so glad that I have this wonderful opportunity to be here sharing this gosple that is sooo perfect <3 I love my savior and am completely amazed for the love he has for me. It´s real. And it´s wonderful. Love you all! Love your life!

Sister Parco

Monday, August 18, 2014

Sisters of Power

The week

This week was full of awesomeness and love and hapiness and everything. We had a great week with the members and they are starting to trust us. One member brought us to 7 of her friends. And get this. She made a cake for almost every single one of them. When she brought us to her friends, she giggled and said that when they see that she brought a cake, they have to let us in and that we should just go right at it and teach about the restoration with everyone of her friends. She is so amazing. I love her so much. This week she left with us about 3 times to help devliver the cakes. And she called us ´´Sisters of Power´´ I´m just so glad that she trusts us enough with her friends <3 And we shall go on loveing all the members here! Also, we had our ward conference, and guess what? 3 members brought their friends to church! Without any warning, promise or anything! Did I tell you that I love this ward? I do.

The members

The members here love us so much. And we love them. It´s such a perfect love. The irmas of the ward have come up to us saying that they weren´t on the list for lunches this month and that they were super bummed. And another said that she just had to pass by where we were at the end of church just because she wanted to hug us. Another offered a noite familiar. Another wanted us to move our house to the same apartment as her. And another brought us to 5 references this week! I just love this ward so much! It´s just a big love fest on sunday and the irmas adore us. I love working with members. We go there and offer service and try to help them in any way possible and then we pray with them kneeling. I love it. Hehe me and Sister T have a goal of knowing exactly where every single dish goes in the houses of the irmas because we made a goal to wash the dishes in every house ;) And today we´re making personalized post it´s ´´from the sisters´´ so that we can put it in their bathroom to thank them for all the help. They are getting so comfortable with us, and they are so willing to help us with people, or friends, or introducing the gosple! The members here are absolutely wonderful! :) <3 Ala 5 is where it´s at. <3

Me and Sister T

I love working with sister T. Everytime during companionship study we just go at it. We say ´´alright, we have this problem this problem, and that problem, so how are we going to fix it?´´ I think i have grown and learned so much more in this transfer than any other transfer. We´re really getting down to the nit and gritty to be better and better every single day. And I just love it.

The people

A is good. We´ve taught everything and she´s feeling great. She´s reading the scriptures and praying. Still undecisive because she wants to experience other churches, but she is an amazing young woman. I feel so priveledged to teach her the Gosple :)

We met R, E, and their grandma this week! they are our neighbors and they were a reference from that irma. They are so cool. E is trying out for the handicapp olympics! He´s already recieved 3 medals and is hoping to get into the olympics! He´s so cool! And R and her Grandma are super interested! They have so many questions and doubts, and we explained the book of mormon to them and all of them said they would read it without a doubt! :)

We met N and her family this week! I know I already said this, but I love teaching families :) I love teaching the restoration to kids because when you break it down into smaller simpler words, you realize that the restoration is pretty simple and that even children can understand it :) 

We met J, E, and D this week! J is the sister that has a daughter and E and D have a daughter too. They are perfect. THey first time we taught D this week, we taught the restoration like we usually do, but this time, i decided to wait for a long time after we recited the first vision. We sat there for about 20 seconds. And we waited. And then we waited and asked how she felt, D started saying that she felt that something hit her heart a bit and then started crying, and then her husband when we taught them the second time, put his head down and started crying to. The spirit was soooo strong. It was amazing. I think the most rewarding part was when we asked erisma, the husband to say the closing prayer. There is just something about a family kneeling together to  say a prayer and the father saying the prayer. Because you don´t see that often. It makes me so grateful that I had a father who showed me to kneel down and talk to his Heavenly Father. It really is wonderful <3 (yeah, that´s you pops! ;) )

Anyways, that is pretty much the news. I hope that you guys had a wonderful week and that you are reading your scriptures! I love you guys all so much and every day I think about how I have a wonderful amazing family :) <3 I pray for you guys every day and I am glad to have grown up in a family centered in the Gosple of Jesus Christ <3 Be good. Stay Awesome :)

Love

Sister Parco

Monday, August 11, 2014

Walk

This week was pretty good! Definitely a week to learn, walk, grow, walk, smile, walk, laugh, walk ;) ,  and talk to people! I definitely learned lots this week! Sorry if it´s short this week, but our time got moved back to na hour, so i´ll just put in the more awesome stuff :)

My companion

We are seriously so perfect when we teach together. We switch off like no other, we talk like no other, and we are really trying to get down to the nitty and gritty with everything. When we study together, I just love it, because we think of exactly what people need to hear. The necassary parts. And then we just kill it and follow the spirit like no other. It´s wonderful. I´m so excited every week to work with her :) <3

Things I love

I love families. We found A and A this week and they have 4 kids. All under the age of 10. It was so crazy. I think you have to have a lot of courage to have 4 BOYS under the age of 10 ;) We started out teaching the restoration, but it was so crazy that we decided to switch it to Family prayer. So we taught them about Heavenly Father and how he is Always there to listen, and asked them what they thought about their father. It was wonderful because all the yelling and jumping on each other stopped when we were teaching about prayer <3 And then we bore our testimonies about Heavenly Father and we all knelt down as a Family together to say a prayer. It was so wonderful.

I want kids. But that will just have to wait ;) I seriously think that I said this at least 5 times a week, if not daily.

People

A! This week we went to her house to make chocolate chip cookies! It was wonderful. I ate more than I should. BUT I love A. She has so many questions. She´s Reading the Book of Mormon everyday, and she is trying to stop drinking coffee. All this at 15. She is so wonderful and so very special to us. She really has that desire and I just love seeing her change every time I see her :)

V is awesome! She went to primary again this week and they gave her a Faith in God that she´s going to start this week! She has so many deep questions for na almost 12 year old, and she is Always so willing to learn more! Gosh. I love her too. And it´s so wonderful to see all the primary kids welcome her :) I was so proud of her :) This week she recited the article of Faith for everyone :) She´s just amazing :)

I´m gonna stop here because my time is pretty low.

But I love you guys sooooo much and am so grateful that I have a wonderful Family like you guys :) I love families. AND GUESS WHAT. I decided that we are doing Family home evening every single week when we get home. BE PREPARED. And theyre gonna be the best days ever. I love my purpose here. I love the Lord. I love working. I love learning. I love growing. I know I´m here on the Lord´s errand and don´t want to waste a minute. I love every single one of you guys and I beam knowing that I can be with you guys forever :) Keep being amazing and HELP THE MISSIONARIES! ;) Love you :)

Sister Parco

Monday, August 4, 2014

College

So I kind of forgot to tell you guys that we had transfers. SURPRISE! But they were awesome :) My new companion is SIster T! I LOVE HER. Me and her just click. We teach wonderfully together, we work hard together, we laugh together, it´s just wonderful. We try so hard to go to bed early sometimes because we´ve worked so hard during the day, and we are in our beds by at least 10. But then we sit there and giggle the whole time until it´s 10:30, so it doesn´t even make a difference. ;) But we are crazy pumped to work together and we have so much we want to do together here :)

Deep thoughts

So we were talking with a pesquisador about how we only stay here for a year and a half, and we wre talking and saying the usual stuff, oh yeah, don´t worry, we wear pants, and that we´re gonna marry and that we´ll study and have a Family, but sister Torres said something that really actually stung a little bit. She was talking and she said, ´´so, after this year and a half we can´t  be missionaries.´´ Of course it was casual, but it really made me think.  I never really thought about it that way. The fact that I can´t wear a badge with the name of Jesus Christ. The fact that I can be a literal representative of him. The fact that what i´m doing here probably won´t be repeated. The fact that I won´t spend every day testifying of Him and putting myself completely out of the Picture and seriving others. It´s not possible at home. But it really stunk when I thought of that. I love being on a mission. And I cherish this time here SO much. I am grateful for this opportunity to be a missionary and I hope that I can make the best of this short year and a half.

Do you know what is something interesting? When you stop thinking about yourself and you think about what the Lord wants. You stop thinking of what you look like to everyone else and you just put everything down and think. Alright Heavenly Father, what next. You dropall of your personal selfish feelings and just go at it. That´s what makes this mission totally Worth it. Absolutely positively Worth it. I love being here.

i´m holding a Bird right now. and  petting it. And it´s biting me

I love banana bread. I´ve made a goal to make it for every companion. They love it. It´s famous. Thanks mom! <3

Miracles

Wow. So many things happened this week. There was definitely a miracle everyday. One thing that me and Sister T do is ask ourselves, okay, what was our miracles today? And we Always have one :) <3 But i´ll tell you 3 miracles that were my favorite.

So we were teaching M one day and we were going to presente the book of mórmon. But when we sat down, we noticed that her daughter who usually doesn´t listen to our messages followed us and had a book in her hand. We noticed that it was the book of mórmon so we started out asking her about it. Well, turns out that she found it in the library, and was having a really bad day at school. So, she decided to read it, and she said that she felt na overwhelming feeling of Peace. And when she saw that we had it in our hands, she followed us to learn more. THen, wanting to know more about her story, i asked her her favoirite scripture,and she opened right up to mosias 4 that talks about Christ and when he suffered. WHAT. I almost didn´t know what to teach because I was so surprised at the miracle! She went to church yesterday and stayed for the 3 hourse and the baptism after. Oh yeah, and she´s 12 and she understands everything. MIracle mesmo

Another was when we were looking for na espesquisador. We found the house, but it was a condominium. And we tried hitting the number and nothing happened. But all the sudden 2 people walk by with another person and say- ´´hi sisters!´´ And we´re like, what? And we introduced ourselves and told them that we were missionaries from the área and they asked´´who are you looking for?´´ and we said oh E´´ And the third guy goes, ´´hey, that´s me!´´. Those 2 members were there with E. and he invited us to see his new born baby that only had 5 days. WHAT. So we follow the two members and E to his apartment to see his baby where he invited us to come back wednesday at 7. MIRACLES!

The other happened 50 minutes ago. A lady came up to us in the lan house here and said that she wanted visits from us and that she wanted to go to church and already had visits from the other missionaries. She gave us her address and number and we´re returning there another day! HOW CRAZY IS THAT?!?!

I´m so glad the Lord trusts us with these miracles. I just hope we can keep his trust and act in the way that He wants us to act :) Me and sister Tare really trying to act with the spirit so that we can say what He needs us to say. And it is absolutely amazing during lessons. We´ve been trying to switch off every question so that 1 we ask questions and 2 that we switch off more to say what needs tobe said. Man we´re just gonna be perfect together!
College

For some reason,college was on my mind a lot this week and the whole leaving your Family part. And I was Reading a scripture and I wanted you guys to imagine right along with me about how cool this is. ALright. So, read isaiah 53:10. If you notice. Heavenly Father sent His only begotten son so that he could see  us again. When you think that we´re going to heaven, I only think that, man, it´s gonna be cool to be in his presence, but he is more concerned about seeing his kid again. Just like Chirstmas bread when you see your kid again :) I thought that was so cool :) <3 I love the scriptures :)

Love you all!

Sister Parco