E-mail Week 61: September 18, 2017. Meeting Omar. The Power of the Gospel of Jesus Christ to Change Lives

Como me les ha ido?

Well I hope all is going well for you.  I am just doing genial aqui en Girardot. The past few days have been a little bit cooler with a lot of rain, but then it gets back up to 100 and me and my comp are sweating buckets. 

But this week was good. We had a fair amount of people with baptismal dates fall through so we have been blessed with the awesome opportunity to contact. And so we contacted, which was awesome and tiring!  It is super amazing to see the people who are ready for the gospel. We found a guy named Omar, who was has been reading the Book of Mormon like crazy. We gave him the book in a contact and then the next day, we came back and he had already read the introduction and the first four chapters. He has a baptismal date for the 28 of Octuvre.  

Also we  found an amazing lady who has been coming to church for the past two weeks. She has  a husband who is a member and her desire is to have her family in peace and to know if the Book of Mormon is true. Talk about real intent!

Well not much this week, but I would like to share an experience real quick. This week when I have been really tired contacting, I have been thinking a lot about the power of this gospel. It is amazing to see that people who really need this gospel and allow the gospel to enter into their lives and blossom, really are so happy and I am so happy.  I want to keep finding people like that because there is nothing better than this in all the world. 

I testify that Christ loves you, and will always help you. 

Have a great week.

Elder Parson

photo 1, friendhsip day so we ate a fish, so good. mojarra frita

Friendship Day so we ate a fish.  So good!  Mojarra frita.

My companion  kissing a dog...a little desperate, still has 9 more months to wait.

E-mail Week 60: September 11, 2017

So as you can read from this email, this week was crazy, but awesome!  We were able to contact a bit more and help some other investigators get their baptismal date back on track! This week has been great, the Lord always blesses us. 

So something that was crazy this week was transfers. I am staying with my comp, but as zone leaders we have to make sure that everyone gets to their areas safely. We had an Elder who came from the jungle and was coming to Girardot with a new missionary for the first time and while they were opening the area, they had no way to get to their apartment and they didn't have a cell phone. Due to unfortunate circumstances, they decided to leave the bus early and we couldn't get in contact with the other Elders to go pick them up.  So at 12 o clock at night we had to get up and call a member to take us to Melgar, a town about 40 minutes away.  In this town, there isn't a train station and so we had no idea where the Elders were. We had to run to pick up a taxi, go to his house, go to Melgar, and then we couldn't find the Elders.  We were freaking out!  But then we decided to go back to Girardot and go check the other missionaries house.  Fortunately, at 2 in the morning, we found them in another missionaries house.  So we found them! The Lord really blessed us that we didn't lose them.

This week was good because the members talked with our investigators and invitee them to church. After a few weeks of having very few people in the church, we finally had people come which was a miracle!  We were able to find some amazing people who want  to come to church. And if all goes well, the brother of Felix who got baptized two months ago should get baptized in two weeks. We are having a great time and trying to focus on planning better to help people progress.

A cool experience this week was with Luis, our convert of three weeks.  He is super excited to go to the Temple this week and yesterday we were trying to help him find names to take to the Temple. HE was calling all of his family members, asking them for the dates of his brothers that died, and then he would say  "We have to baptize mom and dad.  They need these blessings and you guys too.  Do you want the missionaries to pass by your house?  He has given us about ten references of his friends all over Colombia. YEAH, that's my convert!  He's a better missionary than me. I am so grateful to know him.

This week I was having a little trouble feeling the spirit but I heard something in church that inspired me, "Dios bendice a los que luchen", or "God blesses those who fight!"  This is so true!  Although we have our faults, God loves us and is happy when we fight to improve, to change.  It is our desire that matters and he always helps us. 

Que Dios los bendiga (have a great week).  

I love you.

Elder Parson

if you have seen this shot in white collar, the first counselor in our branch is an amazing pool player and can do the same

Colombian food -- bird and crocodile.

Leaving at 12:00 at night to find the lost missionaries.

If you have seen this shot in "White Collar", the first counselor in our branch is an amazing pool player and can do the same.

Playing pool.

E-mail Week 59: September 4, 2017.

Well I hope you are all doing well.  I am going to apologize for the shortness of this letter because there were transfers in our Zone and we have been trying to get everyone in their assigned area so I haven't had a lot of time to write. 

This week has been fairly interesting to say the least.  We have been focusing on the counsel of our Mission President  to help all those with a baptismal date to progress.  And so we have been working really hard with 5 people:

• Alba, who had been coming to church 20 years ago and could never get baptized but now is starting to take the lessons again.
• Kevin, a young man who is coming to seminary and has had a great time loving the activities at church
• Mariluz and Andres, the family of the recent convert Felix. 

So we have been trying really hard to help them progress but no one came to church on Sunday.  Although that was kind of depressing, I am still happy.  It is amazing here in the mission to learn about the agency of others--but also your own agency.  Although I am sad about the people leaving, I am excited that I can focus on finding more. Although I am not the best missionary, I can use the scriptures and the counsel of our Mission President to improve. 

I am so grateful that in this confusing world God always gives us the tools to help us be happy and successful. 

I hope that you all have an amazing week. 

Sorry for the short email.

los amo mucho (love you very much),

chao pues (bye then),

Elder Parson