6.15.2014 pictures

Tristan was baptized on Saturday! 

 This is everybody except the Birds who was at the baptism. We had a lot of our investigators come to the baptism, which was awesome! What an incredible experience!

These are the young women we are teaching. The one in front has a baptismal date for the 12 of July! Everybody else will have one soon. They have loved doing personal progress and Arusha, the one with the baptismal date is flying through the book of Mormon and loves it. She feels the spirit so strongly as she reads and she has made so many changes as we have been teaching her. All of the youth have been great examples of how the Atonement changes peoples hearts.

6.15.2014

Tristan was baptized on Saturday! I got to baptize him. We have about 9 investigators coming to church consistently and they are all youth. We have 5 investigators with very solid baptismal dates. We are planning on extending more baptismal invitations this week. This past week has been incredible. We have watched the youth come so far. One young man we taught earlier this week, who said he wouldn't be baptized till he was old now has a date for the 9th of august. He made some major changes, like he wants to live the word of wisdom and the law of chastity. He tries to help the other young men prepare for baptism too by talking with them and giving answers. Elder Jacobson and I have been teaching the Aaronic priesthood class at church and the young men understand priesthood very well. In fact last night as we were teaching Des, Michael came running up to us and asked us "you have the priesthood right, You can give blessings?". We answered yes and then he took us over to his neighbors house where she just had a stroke so we gave her a blessing. Then we helped carry the larger lady down the hill with some of her family members and other neighbors so that she could be taken to the hospital. It was a surreal experience. I felt like an EMT. It was just another reminder that you never know when you will be called upon to use your priesthood to serve others. That is just one of the many incredible experiences I've had this week. The best have been watching the youth change to be more like Christ. They are just so desirous to do what's right. They used to smoke and drink and do all kinds of bad things. They now come to church every Sunday, they are living the commandments and they are starting to really get into the Book of Mormon. All I can say is that I am grateful that I get to be a part of this. It has been so fun this week, and Elder Jacobson and I have become really good friends, which is sad because he is going to Guyana and I will be training a Jamaican named Elder Gordon. The Gospel is changing so many lives and it is a testament to the truthfulness of the message which I get to share. Our teaching pool has about 25-30 solid people in it. I am keeping a journal so we'll have to look at it when I get back. I like the shirt. Things are great! Hurrah for Israel!

-Elder Parker

6.9.2014 (picture)

Sunset on St. Vincent

6.9.2014

Sounds like there is a lot going on at home. There is a quote in my room at the bottom of the Book of Mormon Chart on my bookshelf that talks about cleansing the inner vessel through daily reading of the Book of Mormon. Transfers are coming up a week from Wednesday. I wonder where I'll go. I really have come to love Calliqua and the people here. This Saturday will be my first baptism for one of the young men we have been teaching, named Tristen. It's been cool to look back and see how far he has come. The first time we met him at his house, I didn't think that he would be very receptive. Then we saw him at a different part of town and we invited him to church. I dint expect him to come that Sunday, but he did and he's been at church every Sunday but once since then. He took the challenge to pray about the Book of Mormon early and he received his answer that it is true. A while back I asked him why he was meeting with us and why he was coming to church. He responded, "Because I know it's true". He is such an elect young man and I can't wait for Saturday. Hurrah for Israel! The Book of Mormon combined with the spirit is the most powerful conversion tool a missionary has. Have fun at girls camp. Hope it doesn't rain and that the Bears stay back. 

Love, Seth

6.2.2014 (picture)

The other Elder in this picture is my district leader, Elder Brown. It was fun to get out of our area so much this week and do some manual labor. 

6.2.2014

We did community service everyday this last week except Monday and Sunday. We swept up the streets and gutters of Kingstown. This week I learned a lot about Faith. I was talking with Elder Jacobson yesterday about how we've had so many miracles this week. The young men that we're teaching were reverent during all of church and we finally got one of our investigators that we've been working with for about 3 months to church and she loved it! It was not at all what she had expected. That also taught me about teaching true doctrine will change the behavior of people more than just telling them to change their behavior. It reminds me of a quote on page 19 of Preach My Gospel. But the main thing is Linda finally came this week! Another miracle we saw was with one of the young men named Michael. We were teaching one of his friends and then at the end Elder Jacobson and I were bearing our testimony's about the Book of Mormon, and then out of the blue, Michael started to bear his testimony about how he knew the Book of Mormon is true too because he had been praying and he received an answer to his prayers. Jadese finally decided to stop breaking the law of chastity by choosing to move out from her boyfriend of 10 years because he wouldn't marry her. We were worried for a while about her, but she is back on track and should be in a new apartment with her daughter as soon as she finds a place. One of the young women received an answer to her prayers about the Book of Mormon and she has a baptismal date now. We have continued to work with a young man named Tristen and he is almost all ready for baptism. It's been a great week. Faith precedes the miracle/s. Before being a missionary, I didn't think that I had a lot of faith. However, in order to have miracles happen, I must have faith. I must have more faith than I think I do. It's that way with a lot of things. It reminds me of running. You don't know how much you really have until you have to push it to the limits and then you find out your true potential. This week started off really difficult, and I felt like I was being pushed to my limits, but then everything else fell into place and it turned out to be my best week so far. 

Hurrah for Israel!

Love, Seth