heading home

Last the best...

So really I have no clue how to do this. But it has come to an end. I want to just tell all of you how grateful I am for the opportunity that I have been given to serve the Savior. There is nothing quite like representing him every single day. You cant put into words the feelings that you really have as you finish. I am still looking for them. These are the best two years of my life truly. I know that it sounds cliche but its true. What else... I guess Ill finsih with the testimony of the things that I have come to learn and gain a testimony during these two years.

I know that God is our father. I know that he loves us. I know that Christ lives. He is our savior. I know that we can be cleansed of our sins through him. I know that through repentance and baptism, people can start new lives. I have experienced that in my own life and like to think that I have helped others to be able to experience it as well. I know that this gospel is perfect. There are no holes, there are no flaws but that everything, all of the knowledge we have is perfect. I know that the Book of Mormon is the word of God and that it was translated by the profet joseph smith. I know that this the the true church of christ. I know that we have the priesthood here and that through the priesthood and the ordinances that we perform we can see the hand of god in our lives. I have felt the spirit in my life and know that all of these things are real because of it. I know that the family will one day be eternal and that because of it I will one day be with my family. I love this work. I love the chilean people. I love the people that I have come to know. I feel way too blessed to have served a mission. I love all of you and thank you for your support. 

Wow that is a lot harder in english. Por todos ustedes que hablan español, muchas gracias por todo lo que han hecho para mi en mi vida. Los amo y les deseo lo mejor. Gracias Chile por todo. No Quiero que termine. 

We will see you wednesday:)

Con amor,

Elder Parker

Coming down the home stretch!

Hey everyone hows it going this week? This week was awesome for us and the best part was that Javiera and Patricia were baptized!! It was awesome and they were both so excited for it. It was so cool to see how Javiera, the little 11 year old girl was so excited before and after. She is awesome. We gave her a book of Mormon with pictures to read and she already read like 30 pages and remembers everything. When she was telling us all about what she read her mom, Patricia was smiling and lit up. They are an awesome family and I agree that has to be the reason that I needed to stay here for two more weeks. I am glad I did in the end I had the privilege of Baptizing Javiera and Patricia, the mom, chose a member who helped us a ton during the entire process. It was awesome and the best part is that there are still two of the kids who haven't been baptized yet so my companion will have some work to do after I leave which is coming way too fast. Really the reason that Patricia got baptized in the end was because of the promise that families are eternal, temples, and the book of Mormon. The day that we confirmed her baptismal date was awesome. She started that day, without us even inviting her, to read the book of Mormon and we went with a family in the ward to the temple construction site. It was amazing to see the difference that the gospel has made in her life and the change that has made in her. Its funny to think that the day we first shared with her it was a lesson on her porch outside of her house and that she told us that day that she was Catholic and was never going to change. I like to hear people say that sometimes because now 8 weeks later and here we are haha. I am super grateful to have been able to be a part of their conversion process. It was amazing.

And now I unfortunately have only one week left before I am on the plane but I dont have to write that inspirational email to finish the mission yet. I can do that next week haha. But yeah we are doing well here. Hope you all have a good week! Thanks for all that you have done for me!

Love Elder Parker

For sale...

So this week was super good. Actually I think it was one of the best for me personally and for us a a zone.  We are still working with the 5 people we had with a baptismal date but only two of them are going to get baptized this week. There were problems this week with injuries and alcohol that are going to keep the other three from getting baptized haha oops.  Victor hasn't been able to meet with us because he lives far away. Camilo has problems with the word of wisdom. We taught it to him but on Saturday he told us that he was going to have a birthday party of his cousin and that they were going to drink. We tried to help him to get ready so he didn't drink but in the end he ended up drinking. A lot I think. And because of that he wasn't able to go to church either so there were two problems and because of that his baptismal date fell through. But we are still going to see if we can get him baptized the 2nd of Septiembre. We are going to have two though. Patricia and her daughter Javiera. They are so awesome and its going to be sweet especially because the ward is supporting them a ton. Its been cool to see.

 But the funniest part of this week was when we got home from lunch one day and saw that there was a for sale sign on our house and we hadn't been told anything. I guess the owner wanted to sell the house but he didn't want to tell us anything about it. It was funny as well because after about 45 minutes the owner showed up with other people to show them our house haha. So we decided that it was probably time to look for another place to live. So we dedicated that entire day to look for a new house and haven't found anything yet so there is a possibility that I end my mission homeless haha. We also got home one day this week to find that a cat had gotten in our house and stolen our bread and broken dishes and stuff. We had shut the window where it entered but then found out that it was still inside the house. The thing was panicked and like super hostile so we had a fun time trying get the cat out of our house. It was an exciting week. But hope that all of you have a good week!

Elder Parker

I hate rain!

So this week was going to be super good but in the end it was super rainy and I dont think I will ever have desires to leave when it is raining. The hardest I have ever seen in rain has been here and people try to tell me that I will miss it one day but I think thats a lie. They call it here Tropi-Conce. All of the older people here always tell us that it doesn't even rain hard here anymore like it used to but I have seen more rain in one day here than I see in a month in Utah. It would be terrible to live here if that is true. We were going to have a bunch of people in church again but we didn't have anyone because there was so much rain and wind that it was starting to damage the roofs of our investigators and the water was coming in. It sucked. But we this week finished with 5 people with a date to be baptized. We are going to hope to have 5 baptisms on the 26th. We still have Camilo and now we have Patricia and her two daughters, Joanna and Javiera and we put Victor with a fecha bautismal. We are trying to get them all baptized the 26th but its probably going to change with Victor at least because he is hard to meet with. But we are super excited. I'm not sure if the 8 baptisms that I want will be possible but we will see. I would be happy with 5 haha. But yeah it was a good week overall! We went to the temple and saw the construction with investigators again this week. Its super pretty even though its not even close to being done. But I really don't know what else to write about. Hope you all had a good week though! Love you all!

weekly email

Hows it going everyone? I honestly cant remember if I sent an email last week or not but if I didn't... sorry haha. We are doing great this week. It was one of the most successful weeks I have ever had in my mission. We had 6 investigators in church and we put one of them with a baptismal date. It's funny to see how the Lord works. We fasted for 3 people and in the end he helped one of them to get to church as a family (Patricia) and gave us another one out of no where. His name is Camilo and he is super awesome. He is a 21 year old friend of a member and is super good. He accepts everything super easily and is intelligent which is the best because he understands the things we say to him.He has a baptismal date for the 26th of august. We were super bold with him and he understood that he has to be part of the church. It was super awesome. We are going to see if we can find a way to put all of those people with a baptismal date before the week ends. 

I now have less than a month left in the mission and honestly the worst part about it is that everyone thinks its funny to remind me as much as they can. Especially my companion thinks its hilarious. I feel really old haha and still don't feel like I know very much so when one of the newer missionaries asks me something and I tell them that I don't know they kind of look at me funny and I don't think that I will be able to get used to that. But yeah I think that's about it for this week. Have a good one everyone!

Happy August

Hi mom how are you? Things here are good. We had a bunch of meetings and conferences this week so we couldn't work very much at all.  We don't have anyone with a date yet either but we did have Patricia in Church on Sunday so we were excited about that. We aren't too sure of what were all of her thoughts but we are going to see tomorrow and are going to try and put her with a date. But that is going to be the goal this week to have a few people with a date. Elder Couto and I are doing fine. He is really different than elder Baquerizo and we arent really used to each other and the way the other one works but we are working on getting better with the unity. He has like 19 months so he might finish here too in a few more cambios. And yeah I am willing to fast with you guys. I think that over all we can fast so that I can get a few more baptisms before I leave. Like about 6 or 7 months ago I set a goal to get 10 more baptisms before ending and up until now I only have 2 which is kind of frustrating. But Ill just hurry up. I think we can still get it. It will be a miracle but I think we can get it done. And I still feel nervous and not excited about going home but I'm not too worried. And no I haven't heard of the training but it will be alright. If I really am struggling when I get home Ill do it. 

But with the homecoming, I have no clue who you can invite. You can invite whoever you want. You could invite President Arrington if you want. But yeah I don't care too much haha. I would like to see the family and my friends over all. Haha Jake is funny. He might be trying to move to New York here in a year or so to do an internship. That's crazy. And I like what you said about that scripture. I feel like I have learned to not do that as much in the mission and I hope its a habit that stays with me throughout my life. I cant remember who but someone had challenged us to read chapter 101 of Doctrine and covenants so I am going to read it. But that's about it I think. Thanks mom for everything that you do. Love you and have a great week!!

Elder Parker