Happy New Year!

Welcome to 2016! I wont actually see any of you face to face this whole year so I hope its a good one for you guys. For our new year we got to eat dinner with a family again. We went to the house of a member and ate with them. The best part of the night was that when we went into their house, the tv was on ESPN and they were watching the Clemson v. Oklahoma game. It was a huge blessing to be able to watch a little bit of that game too. I found out that American Football is super hard to explain in Spanish.

But on Saturday Varinia got baptized by her dad. It was awesome to see that happen and now they are literally my favorite family here. The mom of the family enjoyed it too and I am sure that she is going to get baptized at some point throughout her life. That would be so cool. She goes to church with her family every Sunday and she really doesnt give us good excuses for why she doesn´t want to get abptized so its just a matter of time really. At least now she kind of participates in the lessons that we have and she actually says amen at the end of the prayers which is a change. She is now our main focus. Yesterday we confirmed her and I also got to participate in a baby blessing which was a first. A random member called me up to help which was a suprise but it was good.

Last, this morning we went to Talcahuano just to explore and stuff and in the harbor we found sea lions just laying on this cement thing which was cool. They are huge. Two of them were fighting the entire time and that was pretty fun to watch. Talcahuano is a cool area. That's all that I can think of though so I hope you have a good week. Next week are cambios so I will let you know my situation next week. I am pretty sure that I will at least be with a different companion. He has 6 months in this sector which usually means that he will get transferred but not always. I want to change, not because I don't like him but more because its always more exciting when things are changing.

Love Elder Parker

Varinia and her Mom and Dad

Merry Christmas!

Merry Christmas everyone! I hope it was a good one for all of you. It was definitely the strangest one for me that I have had. It just doesn´t feel the same when its 85 degrees outside. I also ate fish for Christmas... I hope that I never have to do that again.

But for my Christmas, we went to a members house and ate a huge dinner with them on Christmas eve. That is where I had fish. We had some pretty good steak, pork chops, and turkey too though. That was really fun to do and I walked away super stuffed. Christmas day, I talked with the family and that was really fun to do. The time went by way fast though haha. Good to hear though that they are doing well. After that though, we went to a sports activity with all of the missionaries that are "inside". That means all of the missionaries that are in the zones around Concepcion. I found out though that my ping-pong skills are rusty though. Overall it was a really good two days.

More than that we had a mission conference on Tuesday in which all of the missionaries from our mission came to our stake center and we hung out for a few hours in the morning. That was cool to see all 200 missionaries in the same place at once.

Also, Varinia, the daughter of the Moldonado family has a baptismal date for this Saturday so hopefully the next time I talk to you guys I will have baptism number two. That's all though for this week.

These pictures are from Christmas and from a service that we did. 

 Our Christmas Mission Conference

 Christmas Eve

A service project we did

Feliz Navidad!

Hello everyone, Merry Christmas! How are you all doing? Things are normal in Hualpen I guess. No one wants to hear from us and we get stood up on a lot of appointments. So its been a pretty flat week but that's alright because this week should be pretty sweet. A lot of activities and conferences and stuff will make it go by fast.

But I have a few fun things this week to talk about... First thing is that I went to the mission nurse lady this week because I can´t get rid of my fleas. I thought it must have been something else but she still thinks its fleas. I counted the bites yesterday and got to 79 on my entire body. Blessings. So that has been fun I guess. 

We are working with a few less active and inactive people right now and its going really well. One of the families that we reactivated should have a baptism date for their nine year old daughter this week so that should be awesome. The little girl is named Varinia and she should have a date for her baptism by the next time we talk on Monday. We took a member with us to the last visit with them and it was a disaster. We let him talk a little bit about the spirit world and before long it was a full blown temple prep class being taught by him. We tried to stop him but he just kept going back to the subject. That was pretty funny and not good.

We had a few activities too this past week like a concert in the Stake last night, and a Ward family night on Saturday that were both really fun and good for our ward. Our ward is really struggling. They lack any sort of motivation to improve the ward.

Also, on Friday I reached the 100 day mark of my mission which we celebrated by doing the exact same thing as every other day. Hope you all enjoy Star Wars and enjoyed the BYU v Utah game. We all know that BYU is better. Love you all and FELIZ NAVIDAD!

Elder Parker

3 months!

Hard to believe but I have already been out over three months. It seems like it has gone fast but at the same time really slow too. The days seem like weeks and the weeks seem like days which is the only way you can explain it. Hope you are all doing well though. I actually do have a little bit to write about today which is different haha.

First thing, on Tuesday we went to a place called the disembocadura. Its the place that the Bio Bio river meets the ocean. Our ward had a priesthood activity there and it was super fun. We climbed the hills that surround the beach there and took a bunch of pictures. I forgot my camera at home today though so the pictures will come next week. We had a barbecue and stuff and just hung out and had a good time. Played soccer on the beach and stuff. It was awesome. Kind of like a second P Day during the week.

Yesterday I watched the worlds largest disaster of a primary program in our ward. It was hilarious. Half of the kids refused to say their parts and one girl threw up on the stage area she was so nervous. Another really little kid cried uncontrollably and had to be taken out. And the entire Stake Presidency was there during all of it. It wasnt your normal sacrament meeting to say the least.

Also I have good news and bad news. We are working with a family where the dad is a member but inactive and has a daughter that wants to get baptized. They both want to become totally active again. But the dad finally had an interview to declare him totallly active again and he wants to baptize his daughter. He has an interview with the bishop this week to set a date for the baptism of his daughter. Since she is 9 years old she is technically considered a convert and it will count as a baptism for the mission too. Their name is the Moldonado family and they're awesome. I can´t remember if I had told you about them or not.

The bad news, we had to let our super catholic guy named Francisco go. He just wasnt willing to get baptized even though we tried everything we could to help him feel the need. So that was a bummer. No one here understands the significance of the Restoration and that ONLY our church has the authority to baptize. Its frustrating.

No ,Javier is not scheduled for the 26th anymore because he didn´t come to church this past week. We have to meet with him and re commit him. But Eduardo is doing awesome and so is his daughter. His wife is a little reluctant to accept it but it really feels like its only a matter of time. We haven´t been able to meet with Felipe any more but we have a cita tomorrow. Things are going really well here then I guess you could say.

Also I know that Star Wars comes out this week. I will be depressed the day it does and I ask that none of you give me any spoilers. Hope you all have good weeks and I love you all!

Elder Parker

Another week down...

How are we all doing team? Things are good where I am at. Its hot outside though. Like 85 degrees every day with a bunch of humidity and like 20 mph winds all of the time. I guess it could be worse though. I'll enjoy dry weather while it is still around.

Not much happened this week to be honest so I dont really know what Ill talk on. Things were more difficult than usual this week though. We just havent been getting people to teach so we have done a lot of contacting and knocking doors which makes for really long days. However we did find a new investigator that we hope does really well. His name is Felipe and he is an 18 year old kid just like us. He doesnt really believe in God but hes got a tough family situation and that made him humble enough to let us in. We committed him to pray just to find out if there was a God so when we go back tomorrow we will find out how it went. Santos is doing well.  Javier is getting a little bit lame. He never has time to meet with us and I dont think he realizes the gravity of what we are teaching him and how important it is to mankind. Thats how a lot of Chileans are. 

Also, I have fleas. Its great. I dont know where I got them or how but they suck. I hear that rubbing dryer sheets all over everything helps get rid of them so I will be buying dryer sheets today. Gotta love the mission.

We have been doing really well with our less active people though. Now that we are back in our own chapel we have about 90 people in church each week where before we had about 60. That's really nice.

Our plans for Christmas aren`t set yet. Really it just depends on if the members invite us over for Christmas or not. I guess usually we go eat with a member on Christmas eve at like 9 oclock is the Chilean Tradition. But, if no one invites us over we will just do what we did for Thanksgiving and make our own thing. 

That's basically all for this week though so I'll talk to you again next Monday. Love you all and remember... Go Cougars.:)

Love Elder Parker

First baptism!

How’s it going everyone? How was your Thanksgiving? Glad I get to email you all again and tell you about the pretty good week I had.

To start, Santos got baptized on Saturday and that was super cool. I got to baptize him which was super cool too. It is both mine and my companions first in the mission but hopefully we get to have a few more before we finish. Crazy to think that only about a month ago, we were going to drop him as an investigator because he was never progressing. Blessings.

the guy in the blue shirt next to me is Hermano Luman who is hilarious, and is the member who helped us the whole time, because we always met in his house and he is good friends with Santos. The other guy on the left is this Evangelical dude that is friends with them both that just came to watch. Apparently he loved the service, and could be interested :)

Secondly, we yesterday committed Javier to a baptismal date on the 26th of December if he gets an answer to his prayers. So please say a few prayers for him and that would be awesome if he got baptized too. He is an amazing investigator that just wants to learn and to do what’s right. 

Third, we celebrated Thanksgiving last night by making pizzas in our apartment and they were actually not too bad. We made three kind of meat lovers pizzas and one dessert pizza. The dessert pizza has something called Manjar for sauce (It’s like caramel stuff), and Oand coconut for the topping. Probably not super healthy, but whatever.

P-day Eve pizza party

Last, yesterday was the last day of the transfer and really not a whole lot changed for me. I have the same companion in the same place, living with the same people. That’s both good and bad. I want to have as many experiences as I can with different people, but at the same time we are working well together and I am familiar with the sector. The sector is tough but we are making progress. My companion was also called as district leader so that will be interesting.

Miss you all and love you all. Sorry if my English is bad, it’s hard to switch from Spanish. Not fluent yet but let’s keep hoping.

Love

Elder Parker

pretty sweet week!

Hows it going everyone? Glad I get the chance to email all of you once again. Not a lot happened this week but the things that did happen were pretty sweet.

First, we had a conference of all the new missionaries on Tuesday and Wednesday and that day we went to the office and had classes and stuff. After we went out with a Zone leader and worked in their zone with them. I worked with an Elder named Elder Turley in a place called Chiguayante. This place was so ghetto it was awesome. We heard gun shots one time throughout the day. But while I was with him we had a lesson with a lady who had been invited to be baptized but had a job that made her work on Sundays. She could either leave her job and be baptized and trust in the Lord to bless her, or she could continue working to barely afford to live. Anyways we had a lesson and all of the sudden she said that she would be baptized and leave her job. Neither of us thought that was going to happen and were both super surprised when she said that she would do that. So that was cool to see and experience.

Also, we had a lesson with an inactive lady named Susanna Paz. She broke her ribs and when we contacted her she asked us for a blessing. In the middle of the blessing she started crying basically uncontrollably because of the spirit. I thought it was strong but like not that strong. But she is pretty great and I am almost positive that once she feels half decent again she will return to Church. She hasn't been in about three years now. So that was cool.

Santos date is still this Saturday. He is the only one that we have with a date. Javier is progressing yeah and we actually have his wife to teach now too. Francisco is the name of the super Catholic guy and he isn´t gonna go anywhere we don't think. And the Moldonado Family is good. The mom is super evangelic but we will keep working with her.

It is basically 100% sure that I will stay here at least to finish training but normally people stay longer than just two transfers in their first area. My companion has three transfers here so he might move. I dont really care if I stay or go though. Either would be good with me.

And the final thing is that we should be back in our church building by the next time I write you guys. Our building had a bomb thrown into it and that caused a fire about 6 months ago and that messed some things up so they have been repairing the building. Also by the next time I write you I should have 1 baptism under my belt. Hopefully. But I miss you all and hope you are doing well!

Love Elder Parker