Relief and Happiness

Well, It happened. And it was absolutely wonderful. And I loved it. And it was magical. The wedding was great. It was gah. It was just so good :) And it´s over. Which is sad. But it´s also happy. And now we shall wait for next week :) I sent a bunch of photos and hope that you guys like them :) Ad. was so nervous. We helped her with the dress and getting ready with everything. She was so stressed. She reminds me a lot of me ;) But after everything, she loosened up and laughed :) I love seeing all the family happy and changed. It´s amazing the transformation that you see in people. The immediate change isn´t what is worth is but the gradual change that you see in each day, each week. People learning aobut the savior, recognizing him, learning what He did, and being able to use his sacrifice. That´s the change that I love. That point where they start feeling happy even though they dont have a specific reason to be happy. 

Primary program

 Every year I shed at least 3 tears. And I tried sooo hard this time to not cry. But I did. I sat there thinking how much that I´m going to miss this ward. Every single person here is so special to me. And just to clarify, that´s not why I cried ;) But I couldn´t help but think of it :P Of course I could stay for the next transfer. But after 5 months, it´s highly probable that I will leave. But it just made me sad to think of leaving this ward that has been practically my home. But anyways, the real reason that I cried. In the end of the program they had a boy that graduated from primary. He was inactive until 4 weeks ago. And he joined primary with enough time to practice for the program and then leave and pass the sacrament. It was a tear jearker. He comes from a rough family and he started his talk with his lip trembling. And testified how he knew that this church was true and that he knows that this was the right path and how church changed things in his house. Every single person in the congregation was crying. It hit everyone right to the heart. a 12 year old boy. Crying in front of the congregation, bearing his testimony. Gah. So close. I didn´t even think of crying until he gave his little talk. There´s always a good spirit with the primary program :)

Sooooo this week was such a blur, I hardly remember anything and forgot my planajamento. So you guys got what happened in the last 2 days.. hahaha ;)

Sorry that this is soooo short, but really without my planajamento, I am so lost and can´t remember much hahhahaha. Everything just flies by and I blink I don´t remember anything.  But this week ws good. That you can be sure of ;)

I love you all! Be safe! Be good! Make the right choices! Love the Lord.

Love,

Sister Parco

Proof vie Rock Paper Scissors

Funny moments

So I was talking to one of our neighbors and said ´´Esta bonita hoje!´´ Saying that the weather today was beautiful, but she misinterpreted it and said ´´obrigada´´ and said thank you. So here she was thinking I was talking about her when I was talking about the weather. So awkward... 

This isn´t actually that funny, but proof that God wants us to pray. There was a LA that didn´t want to pray but I told him that we should do rock paper scissors and if I won he should pray. Well there was divine help because I always lose rock paper scissors. I won and he prayed :) And it was awesome seeing him after. He´s been LA for 4 years and after the prayer, he told me that´s it´s been a while that he has prayed. And I said ´´feels good huh?´´ And he nodded. Such a special moment. So Heavenly Father doesn´t just help us when we´re tired, but in the little things too! Even rock paper scissors! :) 

Stuff

Everyone asked about the wedding. We´re good! :) I´m still stressed. But I´m always stressed... ;)  We tried on the dresses with her this week and this week they chose songs that they are going to use to walk. Hahaha Sidney said that it´d be awesome if they´d walk with ´´I am a child of God´´ CONVERSION :) But I think they decided on can you feel the love tonight :) We´re gonna go to a family home evening with them and a lot of the people from the ward tonight :)

A. and Ar.. They´re good. They´re just gonna take some time. It was awesome with Ar. because we´ve been stressing on reading the Book of Mormon every day, and we hadn´t seen much change in him. But last time with him, he looked at us and said... ´´why didn´t laman and lemuel not want the fruit?´´ WHAT Turns out he read until the vision and is still reading. He´s changed a lot. In the beginning it was like ´´yeah, sure, read the bible for us´´ Now he asks who is gonna pray, and what we´re gonna read today :) He´ll get there :) You guys can pray for him if you guys want! :)

We had a feira of Family History. It was pretty cool. Ahh! Fair. We had a family history fair. It was pretty cool. Everyone brought their stuff from their past. And the past of their grandparents and great grandparents.

Things that I´m excited for

PRIMARY PROGRAM IS NEXT WEEK. I always get teary eyed when I hear kids singing. I love watching them. I´m so prideful even though none of them are my kids. Is that weird? I can´t wait to see Am. sing :) Gah. I´m so excited. 

Hey, I love you guys so much and I LOVED reading every one of your letters and just enjoy them so much :) Did you know that I stinking love you guys? It´s true. I love hearing about your lives :) I hope you are all great! Make changes. Do the right things! Stay awesome! LOVE YOU!

Sister Parco 

Surprise

Hey peeps!

I forgot my camera cable. I´m very sad about that. But I´ll send my pictures next week! 

NEWS

So guess who had a surprise transfer? This girl! So, Sister T. left :/ And now I have a new companion Sister P.! She´s got a transfer and a half left. It was weird. Me and Sister T. spent so much time toghether that we were practically sisters. We learned a lot together :) Hahaha we were so dang comfortable with each other because we had been together so long ;) But change is always good :) I like change :) I´m still in Ala V, so that is wonderful :) I still got a wedding to plan. eeeesh... but things are going absolutely wonderful :) It´s been a long time here. Maybe i´ll stay here until Christmas ;) We´ll see :) I have a feeling that I´ll leave in 3 weeks. We´ll see :)

Peeps

Gosh I love our LMA. He´s the best LMA i´ll probably ever see. He always does things to help us and drops everything for missionary work. And he´s a teddy bear. He´s all big and rough on the outside, but he´s all gooey on the inside. We had our meeting with the ward (which we have every week and which hardly ever happens... ;P) And Sister T. told him that she was going to Matinhos, and he started to say something, but he started to cry so he quickly called one of the brothers to say the closing prayer. It makes me want to hug him. He´s got such a fatherly atmosphere. He´s just so amazing. He´s probably one of the people that i´ll miss the most :P

A. and S. are good :) They´re getting ready for the wedding and are getting ready for the baptism. We just have to wait :) But they are wonderful :) I love that family sooo much.

A. and A. are good too. They´ve been going to church every week and are really trying to change their lives. I think it´s gonna be real hard for Antonio. He reminds me a lot of L. Always going to church because He knows that it´s something good, but never wanting to quit drinking. It´s pretty sad to see how addicted some people are. He´s got the same situation as L.. He´s been drinking since he was a kid and hes got 50 years right now. It´s pretty rough with him. I feel more for A. His mom had a heart problem because she drank a lot, and she passed away. And he´s in the same exact path. But it´s rough because he´s got no support at home because his father drinks a lot. Haha a lot of our lessons, Antonio is drunk. but it´s hard to see A.  because he wants to change. He even wrote his goal in his Book Of Mormon. He´s got that desire, but it´s just rough for him. We are talking to them every single day, and we´re trying to help him stop. Me and sister T. always thought of the change we see in people. And we imagined A.with a family, with the priesthood and in a suit. My gosh. It´s so wonderful to picture people with their potential. They don´t realize how much potential they have. And the things that are impeding them. I think it´s sad how people throw that away for stuff that doesn´t even matter. Just something that gives them that buzz, just something that is cool, just something that they grow to need to have like cigarrettes. I think something I realized on a mission is how much horrible stuff there is in the world that doesn´t even matter. Not even a bit.

J. and An.. LA´s that are returning. It was so wonderful :) I love our members :) We invited them to a FHE, and our LMA looked at them and told them how much everyone is missing them. It was a touching moment for them :) We had dinner with them the other day and they are pretty firm :)

Another LA is returning. It´s been about 4 years. And they just started coming back. And they said it´s the best decison that they have made in their life :) <3 They have a kid that we are working with that isn´t baptized yet, but he is super interested and he´s already going to seminary and mutual and loving everything :)

Hey, so I don´t have a lot because I didn´t write a lot down... Oops ;)

But I love you all so much and you guys are wonderful! :)

Sister Parco 

Halloween or Day of the Dead

HAPPY HALLOWEEN! 

Hope everyone had a great halloween and loved the candy! :) 

Let me just give a shout out to the Stalling´s family to say that Elder Stallings (I can´t say Conner, it´s just too weird..) is a great district leader and that it is amazing to serve with him!:) A little weird.. but great! :)

Funny moments

I went on splits with Sister E this week and boy was it hilarious. She´s the kind of really quiet humor. I love her soooo much. Anyways, my funny stories are about her. The first one was with a dog. Of course ;) So we´re going around clapping at the doors and these 2 weiner dogs charge after us and Sister E decided to tease them a bit and stick her foot near the gate. well, the dog had success and bit her shoe and started pulling her. So here we are, i´m laughing my head off and Sister E is standing there freaking out trying to pull away her foot from the dog´s mouth. SO FUNNY

Another funny moment with Sister E. Let me just clarify in the beginning. V is the name of a person and velha means old. So we were doing a contact and we met the lady named V who was an elderly lady. And Sister E didn´t hear her name correctly, and she shouted at her and said ´´You are Velha?´´ So basically she asked if she was old. SO FUNNY. Hahahahahahahahaha

I didn´t have a lot of luck with scorpians. Me and sister T had a rough week. One 15 year old wouldn´t stop winking at us during the lesson, a man from Haiti asked if we were married. And a 50 year old man professed his love for us. Why. Why do these things happen.

Cool moments

We got paintings that look professional for free from a man who paints! It reminded of me of Minnesota so I picked that certain painting :)

This is more cute than cool. Every one freaks out about baptisms, but I think it´s seeing the growth in the gospel that is more rewarding. This week was the week of testemonies. And L, not knowing of course how to sit still, asked if we wanted to go up and then decided if we weren´t going up that he wouldn´t, and then 3 minutes later decides to go up there and bear his testimony. He´s 12 and he´s got so much energy. But he started to bear his testimony. It was only about 2 sentences but it was wonderful. And he starts saying ´´ I love this church.´´ Then he says ´´I know that the church is tr--´´ And you know those moments where things start to click? LIke the moment when you think ´´wow, i really do know that this church is true..´´ Well, he had one of those moments and started to cry during his testimony. I think tears welled up in half of the congregations eye´s (including my own). But seeing that true conversion and that moment for him was absolutely amazing. I wouldn´t trade it for anything. He´s going to make an amazing missionary. He´s such a special kid. Gah. I love his family :) <3

We found $55 on the ground this week. Crazy huh? We had no idea what to do with it so we prayed. On the same day, one of our most flaky pesquisadors that we hadn´t visited for a long time came to our door that didn´t like us a lot came to our door wondering if the church had a program to educate her kids. We didn´t realize it at the time but after we realized that that must have been our answer. So we walked to her to deliver it to her. Turns out that she lost her job recently. I´m pretty sure that she´s not going to go to church or accept our visits, or any of that, but it was wonderful to see how God loves all of his children and is always ready to help them. Isn´t that great? He knows every one of our situations individually :)

We had a SUPER cool activity this sunday! :) It was the day of the dead and everyone was visiting the cemetary, and all of our zone was gathered to show people that there exists a life after this life. And to talk about Family history and how we can connect our family. And we delivered Ensigns to every living person there for free and then offered help for them to build their own family tree. It was wonderful. Do you realize how many people are curious about their ante passados? A lot! It was so cool to see how many people were interested. I´m excited to see the results and how many peple gave their addresses to know more. And do you know what was the coolest thing? All of the front of the cemetary was filled with ensigns -- WITH PEOPLE READING THE ENSIGNS. Can you just imagine?!?!?!?!?!? About half the people in front of the cemetary opening up the magazines and reading them. It was such an amazing sight that made me so flipping happy :) :) LIttle kids reading the part for kids. Adults reading the messages of the prophet. Wow. I loved it so much. SO MUCH.

People

A and S are good! Planning for a wedding is stressful.

A and A are doing great! They are smoking less and less everyday! We´re gonna have a Family Home evening with them! :)

I love being a missionary. It makes you realize how merciful our Heavenly Father is. And that all of his promises are real. And how we could do anything that we want, anything in the world. But when we do what the Lord wants and deserve the blessings according to the promise, we live better. It´s wonderful. I love my Savior, and I love you guys! I probably have the best family ever and don´t know how I was lucky enough to recieve a family like you guys :) <3 Love ya!

Sister Parco 

I Love Life

I love life. Did you know that? I love it so much. It´s probably the best thing ever. A challenge. Na adventrue. It´s completely and absolutely thrilling. Something diferente every day. Gah. Alirght. Enough deep thinking talk. Just know that I love life.

Funny things.

I love primary songs. They are so amazing. We gave all the primary cds for A. and the primary presidente gave her the songs to listen to before the primary program and she was listening to them the other day. But get this. She was listening to the songs in the car outside with the music blasted (probably because the whole Family is sick of them ;) ) But get this. So there was her outside of her house listening to a bunch of primary songs like I am a child of God and I´m trying to be like Jesus, and there was 4 men drinking  with a car playing music like rap and all that music that is crud and ugly. But everytime they tried to turn up their music, A. turned hers up higher. Bahahahaha and then after a while they didn´t have the courage to turn up their music and turned their music off and tried to drink to primary songs. which is impossible SO FUNNY :D :D Gosh I love amanda :)

So we were visiting a contact and we knocked the door and wited for a while, and all the sudden this man comes out of nowhere with a towel and a bunch of soap everywhere and said ´´I don´t think right now is a good time´´ pretty much left there laughing like crazy ;) SO FUNNY.

Things that I love

Our LMA is the coolest and most awesome leader I´ve ever seen. He wants us to meet with the Ward everyweek and he just lays everything down like a boss. And with our meetings with him he is so humble. When he was talking about missionary work, he started crying a bit. And he´s this huge guy. He is probably the most dedicated, humble, excited leader of the mission of the Ward that i´ve ever met. We heard about his story when he was converted and turns out he smoked and drinked and turned his life around. We had a lesson with him and our investigators that are addicted to alcohol and cigarros, and he invited them to baptism before we did. He´s powerful. And he does everything possible for all the pesquisadors. He payed for the wedding, and he told us he wanted to buy a Picture of Christ being baptized in a fancy gah ah! frame. He is amazing. And drops everything to help missionary work. I feel priveledged to work with him.

I love the bishops wife :) And the gossip of the relief society. I don´t know how we´re going to leave this área. Because The bishops wife said that for some reason me and Sister T. are diferente and that the sisters of the relief society have a close bond with us. Gosh they just feel like Family. And we have grown to love them sooo much. Me and Sister T. said that we just have to leave togheter. All that we started and are going to finish here was our moment to gether. If I come back to Brazil. I am coming back here. <3 And the other áreas just cause my other áreas are 5 minutes from the other tehehe ;)

People

We´re teaching A. and A. . They are super humble and want to turn their life around. Both of them smoke and drink. It´s a father and a son. And the dad wants to turn his life around to show a good example for his son. They want this so bad and we´ve been helping them :) A.  was smoking 15 cigarros and guess how many he smoked on sunday? 3. THREE. Can you believe that?!?!?!?!?! We see miracles every single day here. And lives changing.

A. and S. . Everything is planned for their wedding! Me and Sister T. are going to sing! Do you know that song ´´What Heaven sees in you´´? About the diferente White dresses? Yup we want to sing that when she is entering :) <3 I might cry. But probably not. Do you wanna know something? I think I cry less since i´ve been on a mission. Weird huh? I´m gonna be a robot when I get back! :)

So. other people. Well they are great :) I´ll have to tell you about them when we visit them more :) But things are going great! :) These 4 here are doing great :)

I love life. I am grateful for this change to change myself. I am so very grateful for this opportunity. It´s not something that I´m doing to make up for a debt, but something that I believe was given to me to help me something that I want to be. I´m grateful for my Heavenly father. I´m grateful for difficulties. I´m grateful for diferences. I´m grateful for the Gospel. Life is Good. It´s marvalous with the Gosple. Things are fair. Things are wonderful. Life is meant to work hard. I love smiling. I love challenges. I love my Saviour. THis week because we were bringing some of our pesquisadors to sacrament, we arrived in the middle of sacrament and had to stand outside watching everyone else recieve the sacrament. Ít was probably the worst thing ever. I felt like that one parable with the bridesgroom. I never want to pass a week without remembering what my saviour did for me. I´m grateful for the sacrifice that He did. I know that only through Him we can return to our Heavenly Father. And for that I will be forever grateful.

Have a great week! Love you guys a lot :) <3

Sister Parco

Best of Both Worlds

Transfers! ddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddd

WHAT?!?!

Guess who is staying in Ala V for another transfer with Sister T? WHAT? Me. 3 transfers together in the same area :) Never happens. It was so cute when we told the members of the ward. The second counselor jumped up in the air and did a fist pump, and the member that lives aboves us wants to buy pizza to celebrate. I love the ward here. All of them are so excited to help with missionary work. It is AMAZING,

You won´t believe the next news. Guess who is going to be my next DL?!?!?!?!?!!?


ELDER S. I´m so stinking excited. It´s going to be soooooo weird. I´m gonna be reminded of home so much. WHAT. It´s like a completely different world entering into my missionary world. I still can´t get over it.  I´m SOOOOO EXCITED. It´s gonna be awesome. It´s gonna be great. We´ll take a picture! :)

Little moments

I love those little moments in the missionary life where small things make you laugh. We share a house with the sisters. And we sing as loud as we can when we start off with a hymn and we´d have a little competition. And you´d hear the sunbeam song, and then me and sister T. would hit them back with once there was a snowman. Sounds dumb. But in the moment, it´s fun. :) I love primary songs. And singing. Especially in the shower.

I think I have met more drunk people on a mission than I ever have in my life. I´ve grown accustumed and am actually starting to like them ;) One of our pesquisadors was drunk and we went to a supermearcado and found him there. He entered into the store and shouted ´´Minhas irmas!!! oi!´´ Or MY SISTERS! And started yelling and saying hi to us. So funny, and then we were about to buy the cookies because we were hungry but then he yelled at the people at the counter and us and said. ´´Let me pay!´´ So our drunk investigator payed for our snack. That was fun :)

Good news

A. and S. marked a date of wedding! It´s going to be the 22nd of November! I´m so excited. And nervous. We´ll see how it goes. Me and Sister T. and the ward are planning everything :) I´m so excited! :) It´s going to be wonderful :)

Things that I want to do when I get back

Do you realize how cool Family history is? I decided that I´m going to do family history when I get back. It just gets me excited. And bake cookies for the LA´s and offer our house for investigators for breakfast before church. But just a hint. Do it now! Start family history! Invite investigators to breakfast and dinner! Do Family Home Evening! It´s wonderful :) 

Deep thoughts

I was studying alot about charity and I read a quote that was wonderful :)

´´Focus on who you are and not you aren´t´´

I love that we´re children of God. I love that we don´t have to look in the mirror and just see faults. I love that we´re awesome and wonderful and can live our life wonderfully! :) 

i love you guys sooo much! Please stay awesome!

Sister Parco

The Best Weapon

So I don´t have a lot of time, but it´s perfect because this week was a bit slow :)

The bads of the week

So my companion was pretty sick this week. Yup infection in the intestine. We stayed inside for about 3 days. Poor thing. We tried to go out and work, but ended up returning, then she thought it was good, and we went back out, but then ended up returning again. But hey, thank goodness for drugs! ;) But we´re all good and spiffy now! :)

The Goods

There is a bunch of amazing people that i´d love to talk about but i am restricted with time, but all of it is because of one thing. The book of Mormon. Do you know how powerful that book is? The people could not have understood the whole message, but if they have any sort of inkling to read it and sincerely pray about it, everything just comes together. Because it´s not us saying it or just merely preaching to them, but them recieving their own answer from their own God. That´s the most wonderful thing. Because as God doesnt lie, it means He will respond. We had 10 people progressing this week and making changes in their life just because they decided to read the Book of Mormon. We show that it answers life´s problems. And they take a step of faith and read and pray. It´s wonderful. Pretty much every single person has read it and it´s crazy the changes that they make or stuff they learn, or the faith that they gain in God. I love the Book of Mormon. It literally is my weapon. It´s crazy armed.

A and S are marking a date for their wedding!! :) I love them. And I love A. Cutest thing ever. We gave her the primary cds and she doesn´t stop listening to them. I think her parents are annoyed with us, but hey, it´s for a good cause ;) Her mom says that she sings I am a child of God and I want to be like Jesus 10 times in a row ;) What a good problem huh? ;)

Deep thoughts with Sister Parco

Do you know what a year means? It means I know what´s right. I know what´s wrong. I know how to teach. I know how to work. I know what´s needed. I know what´s required. I know what my Heavenly Father expects of me. And I know what I need to do to fulfil those requirements. I know my weaknesses. I know what I need to improve. And I know that these last 6 months are the months when everything can combine together and I can do my absolute best with the stuff I´ve learned. A year means that it´s go time. It means that theres a 6 months of miracles waiting. Isn´t that wonderful? I know the basics, and now all i´ve got to do is keep on getting better everyday :) That´s so nice. Let´s do this.

Gotta go! I love you all! Be good!

Sister Parco