E-mail 15: Monday, October 24, 2016. Omar's Baptism.

Wow, this week was one for the books! It was so awesome in so many ways. To start with, I will share a language difficulty. In Spanish, you have to pronounce each letter separately, so "tres" sounds like "TuDes", or else people can't understand you. A lot of times this happens with "otro". I will ask some people when we are tracting if we can visit them another day this week, and they will think I said, "can we visit you in ocho dias". Kinda embarassing, but the language is going well. Also we were in a lesson with a kinda old lady, and we asked her why she couldn't come to church. I couldn't hear her very well, but she said she was sick all day and had a fever, and I ended up responding, "Cool!"  Besides this, the week went well.

Omar's baptism.  October 23, 2016.

Omar, was baptized this week and it was awesome. We had to hold it really early Sunday morning at 8:00 so I was kinda nervous that no one would come. But just before he got baptized, a ton of people came. And after he bore his testimony and he said that he thought angels were singing and were happy.  I know that he is true -- heaven rejoices when we are doing what's right, just as he had made a convenant with God, and now can recieve a remission of his sins. It was so awesome and he was so ready for the gospel. He was keeping every commandment, loved coming to church, and I am so grateful the Lord has given me this opportunity to know him. We are know working with his sister and her family so they can get baptized.

We also had interviews with the President this week, and they went awesome! My President is from Ecuador and he is so amazing. It was so nice to recieve counsel from him on how I can be a better missionary. 

We also had a sad, but good experience. We were in a lesson with a teenager who was a reference, when his mom came down and wanted to talk to us. She said that her son was a good kid, reading the bible and going to church and didn't need to be burdened down with the commitments of having lessons with us. I was really sad, and started to talk, when Brayan, the member, bore his testimony of how he came to this knowledge, and how he knew the Book of Mormon to be true. It was so powereful and was exactly what they needed. I know they needed to hear this. Afterwords I said a prayer of gratitude and asked Heavenly Father to bless them that they might eventually come to the gospel.  Even though it was a sad experience, it was so cool to see Brayan bear his testimony and this is what can change their hearts.

All in all, a fantastic week. I love you guys so much and know this week went well because of your prayers. I feel them everyday.  I hope you guys will feel the love God has for you which is infinitely more than I have for you. 

Thank you for your examples.

Tengan una buena semana!

Elder Parson

Eating an American lunch in our apartment with Elder Beyler:  sloppy joes with lemonade.

Elder Beyler and I enjoying Chicken right off the spit.  Awesome!

E-mail 14: Monday, October 17, 2016. Teaching an Atheist.

Hola,

This week was really good, we found a ton of new investigators, and I have my interview with the President tomorrow, which I am so happy about. We also taught a lot of lessons this week and are going to have a baptism this week, Omar, so I am so excited for this. 

I am going to share a quick experience. We had intercambios this week and while we were contacting we found an atheist, and he totally let us in! This was awesome, and we had a good lesson with him, but in the end he said he didn't want to come to church, or make any type of committment, which makes it really hard to have them progress. 

We left the house, and I was feeling quite down, wondering if I was doing everythign right. But as we were walking, a man came up and talked with us. It was a way menos activo named Jonathon, and we had been looking for him for a while. We were able to have a lesson with him and his girlfriend, and it was such a blessing. I know when we work hard, persevering con fe, we can do all things and the Lord really will guide our steps. 

Thank you for all your prayers and examples, I will try to write more next week, but I love reading your emails and I don't have a lot of time for much else. But I am so grateful for this gospel, and truly can say, with all my heart, true happiness lies with the doctrine of Christ, and in Christ is my joy.

Thanks for everything, 

Love

Elder Parson

Attatched are some pictures of members.  We had a festivo today so while everyone else was sleeping we went and played with the Ward. They told me to play defense, so that tells you my soceer abilities. Also here is Brayan and a couple members, who are awesome.

E-mail 13: Monday, October 10, 2016. Tied area teaching record.

Hola mi amigos, Como Estan? 

This week was awesome! We had the opportunity to teach a lot of people, we tied the area record. We have been blessed with finding many people ready for the gospel, and we have two investigators progressing to Baptism. 

Omar is doing really well, it is so cool, he loves coming to church, is accepting all the commitments and just loves hanging out with us. He always asks us when we can return.  He is about 28 years old, really busy, but yet always wants to talk to the missionaries. We showed him the restoration video and he told us that he knew Joseph Smith was a prophet. Me and two other members bore our testimony, and unfortunately, I started crying a little bit, but I am so grateful for this gospel.  

Also Adrianna, our old converso, gave us a reference and she is progressing to baptism también. I am so grateful for these wonderful people.

I wish I had a lot to talk about, but really we are just busy. I want to remember everything, but it is just awesome to be preaching the gospel. Last night, we had the opportunity to go to a cita with a member that lives on the outskirts of our district. Darwin came with us, and another awesome member, Brayan, came with us. Real quick, Brayan is a stud who comes with us almost everyday to teach members, and he is just finishing his papers. It is crazy to see his dedication to the gospel. I wish I was that dedicated when I was younger. But as we were walking to our appointment, such joy filled my soul, to be serving the Lord with these amazing members. I felt so happy to be living this gospel. It was so awesome, and I am so grateful for the opportunity to be in the service of my Lord. I love this gospel so much and hope all of you can feel the same! 

I love you guys so much, you guys are such a great example to me. I hope college and everything is going well.  Thank you for all your prayers. I hope you guys have a great week.

All my love,

Elder Parson

P.S. I promise to send pictures next week, sorry to be lacking.

E-mail 12: Monday, October 3, 2016. General Conference.

Well my first cambio (transfer) is over, and it has been a blast. my week has been great.  Our converts are fantastic. Adrianna already has 2 references for us which is just amazing. She is such a good misisonary. Darwin is doing awesome, we have been so blessed to visit him. It is so cool when he asks how soon he can leave for a mission, it is such an inspiration to me. We found an awesome guy named Omar who is amazing. He is 28 years old. He came to two sessions of conference and has been keeping all the committments. He is always smiling and way happy to see us. It is sad--he says he doesn't feel loved by his family.  I hope he can come to realize the immense love his Father in Heaven has for him, which supercedes all other love. I am so grateful for the Lord allowing me to know him.

This week has been kinda difficult.  Many of our investigators weren't in their houses and many didn't want to hear us. We had one guy try to bible bash us which was an interesting experience. We knocked on his door, he opened it, and told us he would come out to talk to us. We were way excited, everyone else had been ignoring us all day. He came out with his bible, looked at our nametags, and asked, are you Mormon? He then proceeded ot pull out a little card, find a scripture, and then tell us why our church was wrong. We tried to bear testimony that we had come to know that our church was true through the Book of Mormon and the Holy Ghost.  He would then turn to us, put his hands on our shoulders, and tell us that this was a lie. It was way frustrating to see his knowledge of the scriptures only was used to destroy others' faith, not build his own. We ended up bearing our testimonies after 15 minutes of him explaining various doctrines to prove us wrong. How grateful I am that we don't try to prove other religions wrong or our religion right. We only invite all to come to know of Christ through reading and prayer.

General conference was fantastic. It is kinda like Pday and your birthday all in one. How much inspiration can we recieve from these amazing hours to improve our lives?

I also want to talk about fishers of men. When Christ was talking to his diciples he said he would make them fishers of men. How great it is to be a fisher of men. Every day I try to find people and help them come to Christ. Just as a fisherman is constantly working for a fish, every fish is special, and has its own way of coming in. They come in all sizes, rainbow trout, browns, even the salmon of the sea but they are all precious to the fisherman. He loves all of us so much, and to echo the message of General Conference, we can all help other people feel of His love. We all need His love. Many talks talked about repentance and how great a thing it is. Repentance is for everyone and I feel its power in my life. I was explaining the importance of repentance to an investigator. I almost broke into tears when I realized the love I had for my investigator, and the immense love Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ have for him. Repentance isn't an easy thing.  It is way difficult at times, but this is how we come to know Christ, and be perfected in Him. If any of you want to feel everlasting peace in your life, please ask your Savior for help. He will show you the way and the leaders of the church will help you. I have felt the immense peace in my life that comes from repenting and I am so grateful for it. 

I love all of you so much, you are amazing examples to me. I leave my testimony that I know a living prophet is on the earth, Thomas S Monson, that he leads Gods church on the earth today, and through this church we recieve immmense happiness. 

Thank you for all your prayers and love.

Until next week,

your loving friend,

Elder Parson