Strangers in church and the beach in the rain

So this week was super good. We are having a bunch of success with really good people that we are finding but they have the problem of not going to church. Its like they want everything we have to offer up until we tell them that they have to go to church and then they kind of lose interest and desire. Its kind of frustrating actually but its alright. The families are still progressing but its slow. They have to hurry up so that I can get them baptized before I go home which comes way too soon. But the newest family that we have is the best one with the mom, her two daughters and her son. She has problems with her son because he just doesnt want to obey.  Basically all of our investigators told us that they weren't going to go to church this week which killed us because we have a ton of good investigators that could be baptized easily if they would just go to church. So we fasted and prayed and had to simply start inviting strangers to church. We invited a ton of people and with one of the ladies that we invited, named Ana, told us that she would go. We didn't really believe her but we made plans with her to pass by her house and pick her up before and when we went we were pleased to find her outside of her house waiting for us haha. We went together and she liked it a lot so now we are going to see if she becomes a good investigator.

Today in the morning it was raining pretty hard again with a bunch of wind so we decided that it would be a perfect day for the beach. So we got together a group of 8 missionaries and went. After a pretty cool hike we made it to Ramuntcho,a hidden beach that I guess is usually super cool and calm with water that is like green but today it wasn't like that. We finished super soaked but it was still fun. The first picture is seconds before I get my feet soaking wet from a big wave which is the second picture haha.

But yeah hope that you all have a good week. Have a good 4th of July!

Elder Parker

The storm continues...

Hey everyone, this week was pretty good, but what I thought was the end of the storm from last week wasn't the end actually and it just kept raining and raining and never seemed to stop. Wednesday we were working and it started to rain so hard while we were walking that it was like whiteout conditions where we couldn't see 100 feet in front of us because of the rain. My supposed waterproof clothing didn't work and I ended up soaked from head to toe with my rain boots completely filled with water. That was at about 5 in the afternoon and we still had 5 more hours to work. The worst part though is that my scriptures got wet. Luckily they dried. But the damage done to my hymn book was too much. So that day we just worked soaking wet. It was a rough day and easily not one of my favorites. 

In good news we have a bunch of people progressing.   People here are doing well and we actually had Lorena and Carlos in church yesterday and it was a super good meeting so we were super happy about that. Their daughters though, Daniela and Katalina were sick though so they didn't go. But without even telling them they committed themselves to go again this next week which will be super awesome. So hopefully we can get the whole family. We found another family too this week which is really good. They are a family of four. A mom and her three kids and they are pretty good because they have some family communication issues and we are going to try and help them out. Jana was busy all week so we didn't get to visit her which stunk but its alright. And yeah the other family that we had is a mom and her two daughters who this week were showing way more interest so we are pretty excited for that! I really hope that they start to progress way more because I would love to have all of those people baptized before I leave. That will be the trick. But yeah that's about it for this week. Hope that you all have a good one!

Elder Parker

Rain and Wind

So this week we basically had a hurricane pass through Concepcion. Its rained super hard with super strong wind for like 3 days straight and there was no possible way to not get absolutely soaked from head to toe. It was a miserable experience but in the end I know that Ill miss it someday. But this week was pretty busy, we had transfers, zone conference, and two training meetings so we didn't work like half of the week. But even with not working too much we found a single mom who is super good. Shes good friends of a member and already accepted baptism and the invitation to go to church. Her name is Jana and she has gone through a bunch of trials in her life and more than anything wants to be with her son forever. Her husband is in a rehab center for drugs right now and she is having to raise her one year old son alone. Her life has been super hard. Shes pretty dang awesome. The family that we have too is committed to go to church this week too so we are hoping to have a bunch of people there.

Other than that, while I was in exchanges, we visited a member that has a bunch of new puppies and played with them for a good while. And the best part was that one of them pooped on my companion!

Zone Attacks and Cambios

Hows it going everyone? This weeks was super good and actually way fun. We had the goal as a mission to have every area get 20 lessons with a member present in the week. It was a pretty high goal and we have quite a few sectors that get about 5-10 in a week. So in the end we had to go over to other sectors and start to help them get their own goals. At the end of the week we weren't even working in our own sector but were getting members to go over to other sectors and to help them get lessons. We kept track and in the end, my companion and I got 33 lessons in the week. 20 of our own and the rest to help other sectors.  We had to basically run everywhere and take a whole bunch of buses but we were able to do it and as a zone we got the goal. I honestly feel like it was the hardest week of work that I have had in the mission haha but it was super awesome. We also found out today that I am going to stay with my companion for a third cambio so we are going to be together for a super long time but hes cool and we are working well together so in the end I'm fine with it. That does mean though that I will most likely be staying here in Andalien until I finish the mission in three months. But hope you all have a good week! 

what's up everyone?

Whats up everyone? Hows it going? So this week was pretty good. We were able to keep the contact with our families and they are all progressing. This week we are hoping to be able to get them all in church which would be super awesome. And yeah the families that we have are super good. We are super pumped for them. We are actually going to have two family nights today. One with each of them. We have figured out that honestly the most effective way to work as a missionary is through family home evenings. But yeah they are all doing well. We don't have any baptismal dates yet for them but we are going to try and put it today. Honestly though, this week wasn't very exciting at all. Its the last week of the cambios so we will see if I stay with Elder Baquerizo another one or no. I hope I do because that would mean that I would get the chance to baptize the families if they were to get to that point. But we have already been together 3 months and its not very normal to be together longer than that. But we will just have to hope for the best. Other than that, Today marks the 3 month mark for when I go home and that seems incredible and it has gone by way too fast. But yeah that's about it for this week. Hope you all have a good one! And everyone be praying that the Warriors win! Haha

the ground is shaking...

So I hope you know that as I am writing this email the ground is shaking and everyone here is still pretty calm haha. Its pretty interesting. Earthquakes are like nothing here. Its awesome. But Yeah so this week was pretty dang good. With Jordana, we had a little bit of trouble visiting her because she left on vacations and stuff and in the end we just werent able to do it. But we were able to find two families! One is a less active lady, her boyfriend, and her two daughters and the other one is a mom and her two daughters. And the less active ladys family is golden.  It was so awesome. One of them has lost a bunch of loved ones in the past 3 years and the most recent was the dads dad about a month ago. When we shared about the eternal families the two parents started to cry and said that they want us to keep coming by to teach them. The spirit was super strong and we are super excited to go back on Tuesday. But yeah that was definitely the highlight of the week. Also, something that I want to share is that "The Living Christ" article thing that the church released quite a few years ago is super awesome. We had one of our high council members quote it to us in church yesterday and it was super awesome. Also, the apostles talked about it a ton in General conference so I would like to invite you all to read it. And I personally think that its better in Spanish. A member this week gave me his tie clip thing this week which was cool. It looks super fancy but I would imagine that its not haha. Besides that, I would like to say Happy birthday to my mom. But have a good week everyone! Love you all!

Another week bites the dust...

Things here are going well. Yeah we did find Romina but we haven't found her since. But we found another girl this week that's super good. Her name is Jordana and she has a boyfriend who is a returned missionary. She is super receptiva and cool and shes already been to church a few times so she could be super easy to baptize. We Hope at least. Juan and Pancho are doing well. Pancho actually accompanied us this week to go visit people so that was pretty cool. Juan is doing well too. And the family isn't doing well actually. We can never find them in their house is the problem. They never commit to citas or anything so up until we can get them committing themselves better they aren't going to progress. We had two investigators in church yesterday but they aren't progressing. One is a little girl whose parents wont let her get baptized and the other is a guy that a member invited but we are gonna try and visit him this week. And yeah my companion and I are doing super well together. I honestly hope that I stay with him another cambio. Hes super cool and we get along really well.

This week really the only thing super interesting this week is that we were invited to an evangelical church and we went. It was super uncomfortable but the people were nice to us and everything. I had fun with it singing and stuff. It was strange though. We were there for like almost an hour and during that hour we did nothing besides pray and sing. It was actually kind of annoying because we had been walking all day long and got there and had to keep standing to sing or kneeled down to pray. But it was an experience. We left right when they started telling everyone to go to the front so that they could be healed by the laying on of hands. That part was the most uncomfortable of all. We really just wanted to hear the pastor preach but He didn't say anything the entire time we were there. But yeah it was nice and the best part is that we committed the lady who invited us to go to church with us this coming Sunday haha. It will be awesome if she goes. Next we said that we are going to go to the catholic church but the problem is that all of them are on Sunday at 10... But yeah besides that it was a good average week! Have a good one!