Thursday, February 27, 2014

2.24.2014

Sorry if last week seemed a little crazy and disorganized. We have email at the library and my computer shut out half way through so I had to log back in and didn't have much time. Today was a fun P-day. We went to where they shot some of the Port Royal scenes in pirates of the Caribbean and it was fun. It wasn't what I expected it to be though. I guess some storms have damaged/destroyed much of the set so there wasn't a whole lot to see. We also went to this waterfall on the north side of the island that was really cool. There were many different kinds of tropical plants that reminded me of Hawaii. I'm glad to hear that you and Ben are getting closer and I wish you guys could be here. This past week started off a bit slow but really picked up after Wednesday. We met a lady who is really interested and seemed like a golden contact the first day but then when we came back next, she wasn't as enthusiastic about the gospel. She is reading the Book of Mormon, so her attitude should change. One of the people that I'm most excited about is a man named Benjamin. He's from England and is here for a while so that he can get married and hopefully take his son back to England with him. We contacted him in an area called Brighton earlier in the week and gave him a copy of the Book of Mormon to read. When I returned Saturday with a different Elder (Elder Richardson from Jamaica) he had read through several chapters of 1 Nephi and explained that when he reads it, he feels calm and peaceful. He loves to read it when he is stressed out because it helps him cool down and think straight. I can't wait to see where he can go. It also made me happy to see that he is getting married. There are basically no Fathers down here except in the church where it's better. Walking back from church, we saw a couple fighting and their daughter was outside crying. We stopped and Elder Jacobson helped the young girl to the house next door where her mom was sending her to get away from the fighting. It just shows how important it is to have both parents and I'm so glad that you and mom raised me the way you did and that our home has so much love in it. We also taught this old lady named Ms. Bob. She can't read, just like most of the old people here because they never wore sunglasses and the sun damaged their eyes so they can't see small things like print very well. We were talking about priesthood authority and talking about how a policeman has authority to arrest people but an ice-cream man doesn't have authority. We then asked her if she would let the ice-cream man arrest her in order to help her realize the importance of authority. She can't hear very well either so Elder Jacobson ended up yelling to her several times, "Will you be arrested by the ice-cream man!" as we were sitting on her front porch. No wonder some people think Mormons are weird if that's what they hear us teaching, ha-ha. There is this other younger girl who's 17 who has been inactive for about 8 years who is now back into coming to church. Elder Jacobson and I didn't know that until after we had gone over to meet her and invited her to come back to church. She really trusts us and has opened up to us about a lot of her life. Sometimes I feel like I can't relate to a lot of people down here because the way they live everyday is about as good as the way I live when I'm camping. This week I also tried some iguana and it was nasty. Don't ever try it, especially if the scales are still on. They taste extremely slimy and the bones don't add anything good to the flavor either. Every Monday we eat at a Chinese place with all the other young missionaries on the island and it's really good. If you and mom come down here, I'll take you to it. I just ate there so it's on my mind. Another investigator we were teaching is really interested but was down in calliqua visiting a friend for a few weeks so she is now on the north side of the island where she lives. She is ready for baptism but the Elders up there are going to have to take care of that. In caliqua, there is this single mom who we have been teaching who wanted to come to church but due to some communication errors, she couldn't come. She'll be at church next week and hopefully she will also accept an invitation to baptism. There are many other cool people that I've met that I wrote about in my journal, so you can hear about them later. Tell everyone I love them and I'll talk to them soon!
                                                                                               
Hurrah for Israel!  

-Love, Elder Parker

No comments:

Post a Comment