We Wish you a Merry Christmas, and a Happy New Year!

Disclaimer. So I hope that I looked awake on the Google+! I just wanted to tell you guys that if I seemed like a zombie, it was pretty much for the fact that it had been 2 weeks without a proper Pday.  But that is okay because we will finally have a good pday this thursday :) Let me tell you, it was a lot different this time google+ing you guys because hahah well, I know that I will be returning in 3 months! It was just a see ya later ;) 

But don´t you worry :) I´m still as focused as i´ll ever be :) That won´t ever change :) 

Miracles

This week was awesome! We had to go with faith a lot of the week, and we just saw wonderful miracles! This week we decided to drop everything for 2 days and knock on doors offering to show the video He is the Gift. So here we are knocking doors on day 24 when people are going to church or preparing dinner, and also day 25 when people are waking up to open presents and doing other things. We´re thinking alright in a normal situation, no one would do this. But we just decided to go for it, and it´s funny how many people the Lord put in our way during those hours. We found and talked and taught more people during those hours that we thought we would. We taught about 4 or  families. WHAT? It´s a Christmas Miracle! :) 

Even more miracles. This week we recieved a refernce and it just shows how awesome Heavenly Father is. Well the Sister's found a mother who went straight up to them and said. Hey, I need you to visit my daughter She doesn´t have a church and I want her to start going to church. She woke up this morning and said she had a desire to go to the mormon church. Uh. What. Okay. So we´re gonna visit her this week. 

Sentimental time

So, let me just say that it was absolutely wonderfl to see your faces this Christmas and I couldn´t have asked for a better Christmas present than this! You are all beautiful and wonderful and just spectacular! I love you guys sooo much and I hope that you had an amazing Christmas! :) Have a wonderful week! :)

Sister Parco 

Christmas Spirit

New stuff

So, we had our Christmas conference! It was wonderful. :) It kind of stunk because it was divided into two different groups. Interior and the city. That actually really stunk because There are some companions that I will never see again. :/ It was pretty hard thinking that I wouldn´t see them again. BUT. I saw Sister T! I didn´t realize how much I missed her and how much I wanted to see her face. It´s funny, with how much time you spend together, there is a big gap when they leave. So that was good. And we had to pretend that that moment probably wasn´t the last moment that we would see each other even though it probably is going to be the last moment.... That kind of stunk. I don´t like this about serving in Brazil. There are some companions and people that I probably wont be able to see again. Or at least it will be way harder. And that stinks. But hey. Guess i´ll have to save money to come back :) 

We went to see a waterfall today! That was pretty cool! I had a bunch of pictures but I´ll send them the next time :)

Companionship

Me and Sister de L.  are wonderful :) We are so stinking alike. It´s crazy. We´re both rough on the outside and gooey on the inside ;) We work well and hard together.

The branch

The branch is wonderful :) I love to walk into sacrament meeting and say hi to everyone I meet. Hahaha I feel like my piano skills are getting better on the mission because I´m playing for the branch here for sacramant meeting :) It´s been a while since I´ve played piano for a ward and it´s been a while since they´ve had someone that plays piano. It´s a perfect combination :) <3 The branch has about 50 people every week and it´s pretty good :) I love the youth here. There is a lot of youth here and theyre good kids. Yesterday was my first time doing the class for principals of the Gospel. That was fun! :) We planned a few ideas with president of the ramo to help grow and strengthen them. I´m excited!

Sister Parco

Commandments are Real

Announcements

How many of you guys visited youtube yesterday the 7th of December? Because there was a youtube takeover of a Christmas clip of 3 minutes that is called ´´He is the present´´ And I want to know if you guys saw it. If you haven´t seen it. Go on youtube now to watch He is the Present. And then share it on Facebook and Twitter. Because it is amazing and wonderful and brings the spirit of Christmas. Promise me? Okay great. You won´t regret it. It´s amazing. I love Christmas. I love it so much. Please do this. AND SHARE IT. EVERYONE NEEDS TO FEEL THE TRUE MEANING OF CHRISTMAS :) <3

Differences between the city and the country

You ever heard that story of the city mouse and the country mouse? Well I feel like a city mouse that was thrown into the country. But I LOVE CHANGES. So this is wonderful. It´s so different here. A lot of the roads are gravel roads. And at the end of our area, we just see hills of trees and farms, and plants. And it´s beautiful. And there´s like 20 waterfalls here. The bugs are not so cool though. I woke up the next day with about 30 bites. But they´ll get tired of my blood fast ;) People are both really open and really closed here. Because it´s a small city. Everyone is from the same church and either slams the door in your face or invites you in. But I like challenges, so this is wonderful :) Our district and zone is different too!! We have to take a bus that is about an hour and a half to arrive to our district meeting, and our district is also our zone because there is literally no one else near. And then we have to wait about 10 hours in total for the next bus to come and pick us up. It´s crazy. But so cool. Also. the change from a ward to a branch is different too. A lot of the people here are all converts of less that 10 years and they are just starting :) But it´s got a homey feel :) But I love teaching here. There are some people where you have to teach the basics of the basics. And I love that. In just 6 sentences you can testify of the restoration. Just facts and testimony. I love that. And I didn´t get to teach like this in the city. It´s wonderful to just calm my head a bit and teach things that are facts :) We´ll see what happens :) I have a feeling that i´ll die here. We´ll see! 

Funny moments

So theres these beetle things that are brown and always are in our house and Sister Naranjo absolutely hates them. I think theyre cute. As long as those little wonderful things don´t bite I think that they are cute. But anyways, Sister Naranjo went to kick it outside. And with all her hate, she went to kick the beetle. But let me just explain the situation. In front of her, we have a door and a porch. And the door in this moment is wide open. When she went to kick the beetle. The shoe went with her kick. Right out the wide open door. :D Let me just explain our apartment. There´s our apartment, and a wall, and the backyard of a person that had a huge garden. Well her shoe flew out end fell into the other persons garden. And of course it´s 10 at night so we can´t knock on the neighbor´s door. But Sister Naranjo´s face was absolutely hilarious. I think we spent about 15 minutes rolling on the floor laughing.

Cool moments

You know me. I love to sleep. Well. At least now I do. But on that one hour bus ride is the perfect time to sleep. But you know what the thing that I learned about a mission is? Once you know what a commandment is, you have to/should do it. Like our life. When we hear something from the prophet we should always follow. We know it´s from our Heavenly Father. And we know that it´s going to bless us. And it´s something that the Lord expects of us. The fact that he permitted you to hear it shows that he knows that you´re capable to follow it. In Corinthians, it says that He will never give us something that we cannot handle. This means if we hear a commandment, He knows that although it will be hard, that we can and will be able to do what is asked. Because He is our loving Heavenly Father. And He knows every single one of us. Of course He is not asking that we be hard on ourselves. Of course He is not asking that we keep on digging ourselves down. It´s more of a trust. He is showing our trust for us. And this isn´t just following a rule, it never was, but showing our trust in Him. And I got really deep for something that was really simple. In training, one elder said that we should always be trying to be an example, and gave an example of sharing the cards of He is the Present on the Bus. Here I am on an hour and a half bus ride, trying to catch up on sleep, all the other sisters are asleep. And all the people on the bus are quiet. Of course it´s going to be awkard to stop them on the bus randomly and ask them to watch a video about Christ. And I sat there for about a good 5 mintues wondering if I should do it, making excuses to myself or promising that I would do it later. But in the end, I decided to get up and giving a card after winking at Sister R and explaining our purpose for all the people on the bus with Sister R.. It wasn´t anything big. But I felt good after. I thought that i´d feel awkward. But it was something that I knew that God asked me to do. And I felt good doing it. I know that commandments are real. When a parent tells you not to touch the stove, it´s the same thing that Heavenly Father does with the ´´rules´´ that we have here. I know that He expects a lot from everyone of us. Not the kind of ´´I can´t believe you failed´´ expectation, but the expectation of when a father is letting go of the bicycle seat for the first time expectation. I know taht our Heavenly Father loves us. More than we can imagine. He is our father. Why should we expect Him to be any different than the duty of a father here? I know that my Father lives. I know I am his daughter. And I just love him!

AND I love everyone of you guys! Be good during the Christmas season! :)

Love

Sister Parco

Farmington?

I thought I was in Farmtown today. I was transfered to Prudentopolis and it is way way out there in the country. And as we were in the onibus, I looked out the window, and what did I see? Popcorn popping on the apricot tree. ;) Nah, I saw CORN. It was exactly like a drive from Farmington to Mankato. It was crazy how similar it was. So there´s my update. I saw corn today.

Good stuff

Adriana e Sidney were baptized this weekend. It was the best thing to finish off my time there <3 It was seriously perfect. It was a good mixture of excitement, relief, love, joy, happiness, proudness. Just everything. It was wonderful. And they are such a special family. We sang Families can be together forever as the closing song. and as I was directing. I ALMOST started to tear up, because I looked at them, and I looked at their kids, and I just saw such a wonderful beautiful family. A family where the mom drank every weekend, the dad swore, the kids swore, and just kind of lived in that atmosphere. And the change was incredible. Absolutely incredible. And now they are here. With their eyes on the temple, and willing to change and feeling a difference in their life. Reading every day. Praying. A told me that if she doesn´t pray before she goes to bed, she wakes up in the middle of the night and has to pray or else she can´t sleep. ;) The house started out tense, but now is full of FHE and all the activities of the church. Gosh. I love the Gosple. It´s amazing.

Bad stuff

I threw a lot of my clothes out. THRIFT STORE TIME. Maybe this should go under good stuff.. ;) 

I´m not gonna lie. The goodbyes were SUPER tough. I think we marked a bit on the hearts of the irmas in the ward. They told us that we were the missionaries that more made the difference, and that we were a lot different than the other missionaries and had a special place in their heart. It melted my heart. I think my worst fear is that I´m not making a difference or not doing what the Lord wants me to do. But I sat down during sacrament meeting and was so grateful that I got to see the evolution of individuals, the evolution of families, and the evolution of the ward. I think if i returned to any ward, it would be this one. We did a lot together. And we accomplished a lot together.

I think the worst goodbye was saying goodbye to Ad. , S., L. , and A.. We gave them one last message. And I just poured out my heart in how much I want to see them in the temple, and how important it is to never give up and to always do the things necessary to have a strong family. It was SOOOO hard. we spent so much time together. And we were with them through everything. The stresses and the successes, the good and bad. And we went through the evolution with them. The whole time. And they are gonna be so strong. So ready and willing. So envolved. I don´t have any doubts that they´ll be strong and active in the church, but it still was pretty much a stab in the heart. Me and Ad. had one last hug in front of her house and that was the winner. That´s when the faucet leaks.. ;P

BUT. I´m excited to be here. I´m excited to work and find all the eleitos. I´m ready to knock every door until I am exhausted, and am so ready to do what I need to do here. WISH ME LUCK. ;) I´ll give you the details next week! :)

Love ya :)

Sister Parco :)