11.1.15

Sunday was good. Still no investigators at church, but we have been able to see some more success with less active members. We have been working with Brother J. for a while. He has been back to church pretty regulary for a while, but it was just him coming. As we taught him more and invited him to share the gospel with his family he has helped more of his family come to church. This Sunday he brought his daughter who hasn't been at church for a long time. We haven't been able to visit her more than a quick hello and good bye, but Brother Jonkiesinhg has been reaching out to those that we have been unable to. I am excited to go to blank for my last area. I read about Ammon this morning in my personal study and it got me excited to be going to my new area. I hope that I'll be able to help a few more people be baptized before the mission is over. I liked Ben's costume. 

Love, Elder Parker

11.8.15

Rosignol is like a western town with coconut trees. Many people have donkey carts or horse carts. There are cows and horses, sheep, goats, chickens and various other animals all over the place. I haven't seen any live crocodiles but you can get wallets and scripture cases, or really anything you want made out of their skin. I might get a few things before I come home. It's really hot here, or maybe I'm just getting used to not having an air conditioned car. I don't know too much about the government, but there haven't been any major problems. The vast majority of people here are from India. They were brought here by the English to work on the sugar plantations. Most of the native Americans live in what is called the interior, which means the jungle further south. I am only about a mile from the ocean, and right by the Berbice river.  A popular job is cutting cane (sugar cane). That is what the Branch President, President Narine, does for work. I am going to need to do some adjustments to my teaching style because the education level here is pretty low, but everyone is very friendly. Illiteracy is common. We meet in a rented building underneath a Hindu persons house. Sacrament attendance was 48 yesterday. The branch is cool, but there is some contention amongst a few of the members. There are 180 people on record in the Rosignol branch. Almost all of them live within a 20 minute walk of our house and the church. The branch president and his returned missionary son who is the branch mission leader are awesome. They went teaching with us all of Saturday and Sunday. Since the branch hasn't had missionaries in it for a while they were very excited to have missionaries in the branch.  President Egbert gave the branch permission to do missionary work while they didn't have missionarries so we were able to meet the investigators that they were teaching and 2 of them came to church on Sunday. It will be great to work with the members here. A big focus from President Egbert is training the members on their callings and especially on how to make branch councils happen and be productive.  We were able to set a baptismal date with a part member family on Saturday with one of the people that was being taught by the branch for Dec 12. She might be able to be baptized  sooner than that depending on how quickly she and her current boyfriend can get married. I was able to find a map of where most members live in our area book so that helped out a lot in finding less actives and active members. I have 2 transfers left. Elder Leung Choi and I get a long pretty well. We are working on being exactly obedient. So overall I am excited to be here. It was a good change for me. I was starting to get a little down in Trinidad, but this new challenge has helped me to forget myself and work harder. Love you lots!

-Elder Parker

10.26.2015

My week was good. No investigators came to church, but 3 recent converts came to church. They haven't been in a while. We found a couple new people to teach, but we will see how they turn out. There was one cool lady that we started teaching that is a long time friend of R who was baptized about 3 years ago. We taught her about the plan of salvation and about the restoration. She seemed to be interested in the idea of modern prophets. It's good to hear that Sarah did well at the state meet. 

10.19.2015 (pictures)

We reactivated sister S this week. She is an older Indian lady and had been gone from church for a while, but when her daughter was reactivated a few months ago it helped sister S to want to come back to church. My favorite lesson with her was about the plan of salvation. My companion and I thought that focusing on the bigger picture would help her in her resolve to be active in church again. It's exciting to see people coming back to church. There is another lady that we are teaching who is doing good. Her mother and her daughter were just baptized a little before I got to the area. We made a special effort to follow up with her about reading in the Book of Mormon and when she didn't read, we read what she was supposed to read with her. I think she understood that we actually expected her to read what we left her. She has been consistently reading the Book of Mormon since. She hasn't been to church in a while though. She was supposed to come to church on Sunday but I think she and her daughter had an argument that morning so neither of them came to church. But today she is supposed to go do some paper work to get a divorce so that she can get remarried. I am excited for that because it usually takes a good bit of encouragement to help people to go and take care of that. There are a couple other people that we started teaching, but nobody that is progressing very fast. I have been able to see the Lord's hand in His work more this week. I hope Sarah runs well on Wednesday. I might take piano lessons when I get back. I think that I could be disciplined enough to practice every day now. Sarah, Gabby and Ben are going to be so much older when I get home. Does Sarah have friends that work at Roxberrry. I have one thought for the new house. There should be a library section with a nice comfy chair in the middle. Anyways, it was good to hear from you. Love you.  Elder Parker

Canadian Thanksgiving

10.12.2015 (pictures)

W

It must be fun to be able to have the family over whenever for football games and things like that. Sarah and Gabby have had some good running seasons. Will they be going to Arizona for NXR? This week there were 2 baptisms in our zone. One was in one of the only places in the mission where baptisms are still done in the ocean. It's a place called Point Fortin. It was really cool to be able to go to the baptisms. The other baptism was for a lady that is from the Cominican Republic and speaks very little english. Most of her baptismal service was in spanish, but I could still feel the spirit even though I couldn't understand everything that was being said. Our investigator pool is still low. We did find some potentially progressive people this week near where the last 3 baptisms in the area were. President Egbert is his name. I am celebrating Canadian thanksgiving with the Senior couple here in San Fernando. Have a great week! Love, Elder Parker

10.5.2015

This week, I learned some good things. We have been doing a lot of part member family work. There is a young woman who was baptized just before I got here and we have been teaching her mom Stacey. Last night we got the paperwork from Stacey to our ward mission leader Brother Simmons so that the work can commence for her divorce so that she can get married to the person she is currently living with. We have been able to have some spiritual lessons with her and she has been showing some good signs of growth, like reading the Book of Mormon on a consistent basis, and deciding not to go lime with her friends (limeing with friends=riotous living). She needs to come to church again, so there are certainly several mountains to help her climb over, but the beginning steps have begun. Unfortunately the teaching pool has remained low this week. Conference was awesome! There is a noticeable difference that comes during the conference season. I noticed a big theme from conference is the need to be more prepared to defend the faith, and being more centered on Christ. I liked that counsel, especially because I am working on being more courageous. Being more willing to stand for the truth. I am down at the knuckle on the ring finger if you make a map of Trinidad with your fist keeping the pinky and thumb extended parallel to the rest of the fingers. I thought of you during Elder Holland’s talk. You really are a great example. I think of your strength from you telling about during your high school years how you would stay away from parties and other activities because of the standards you held. It has been helping me. It must have been fun to see some of your old missionary friends. I have been better about taking pictures. I love you mom.

-Love, Elder Parker

9.28.2015

I played basketball this morning and I realized that I am not in the best shape of my life. I weighed myself today and I was 160.4 lbs. I was transferred to San Fernando on Wednesday, so I am not training, but am a zone leader with Elder Dorrance who was in my MTC group. There were some paper work problems that would have prevented me from driving so there was a last minute call. I hope that the investigators in Arima continue to progress with the new missionaries. In my new ward the Bishop is from Idaho, and has attendance in the 95-105 range. That is the most that I have had my entire mission. Unfortunately we did not have any investigators at church. Earlier this month there were 3 baptisms, but now we don't have any progressing investigators. We are going to need to find some more investigators soon. Elder Dorrance reminds me a lot of Geoffrey. Since I haven't been very good about writing in my journal lately I decided that I would make a video journal of the highlights of my day. I have been able to video everyday this transfer, so at the end I will have a video journal for every day of transfer 15. Who did Sarah go to homecoming with? I am excited for conference to be coming up, especially to find out who the new 3 apostles will be. Maybe I'll see you on conference!

Love, Elder Parker