Week 71: November 30, 2017. Transfer to Bogota...then to Chicoral.

Thank you missionary moms for the package!!!!!!!!!!!!!! You are truly angels that uplift every missionary with your letters.

So this will be a quick but fun email.  This week has been really good. I was in Chicoral this week and then I went to Girardot for the last two days. It was awesome to see some of my converts before the transfers. Right before the transfers, I just had a feeling that they were going to close my area so I was able to get everything cleaned up for the house and get the area all ready.  And sure enough, they closed down my area.  I am super grateful for following that prompting. 

So I was transferred to  Bogota, La Libertad.  This would have been my first area in Bogota, but then I was emergency transferred again and now I am in Chicoral with Elder Murphy!  I am super excited for that. We have an amazing investigador that is progressing for his baptism next week so I am super grateful for that.  I am also super grateful for the missionaries  and for the Spirit here in this mission.  The missionaries that I was with for just 20 hours really had an impact on me to just enjoy the opportunity to be on my mission. I have truly noticed how God places everyone of his children in the places where they need to be to truly bless our lives. I was leaving Girardot feeling sad to go away from my 6 month home but eternally grateful for the opportunity that we have to always be in the service of our God. I still have plenty of time on my mission and throughout my life to be an instrument in His hands. 

This Christmas season, I hope that His light will illuminate our  souls so that we may ever be at His service.

A la orden

I love you all.  Have a great week.

Like always, I can't send fotos.

Elder Parson

Week 70: November 20, 2017. Chicoral.

Sorry fam and friends for not sending a group email last week, but like always, the excuse is, the time got away from me.  However, this week has been really good.  Other than the fact that my comp was sick, poor guy (he has had it rough), but he really pushed himself to go out and work hard.  It has been great. 

Some cool facts were that my investigadores, Natalia, Ingrit and Kevin were baptized this week! Although I wasn't able to see the baptism, I am super happy to hear that they were able to enter into the baptismal covenant.

 

Also this week, we were able to find a new investigadore named Duvan.  The interesting thing is that a month ago while I was on an intercambio here in Chicoral, I had the prompting to go contact this house that was across from a less active we were teaching.  We contacted them but were never able to get an appointment.  But this week we found one of the kids in the house that actually used to go to church four years ago but had stopped coming.  And now this week he came to church and is progressing towards his baptism.  It is truly amazing to see that the Lord always guides us; that is something that I have truly learned and loved about the mission.  When my will is truly His will, the Lord has always guided me by the Holy Ghost.

And this week we have been inviting everyone to church but on Saturday night, everyone said they wouldn't be able to attend. But I felt a calming spirit that told me everything would be all right and we actually had an investigator show up that we were teaching a while ago but haven't gone back and he came to Church. The Lord works in mysterious ways .

Well, my time is going.  I hope you all have a great week.  I would like to end by quoting something that was shown in the JAS cara a cara "Young Single Adult Face to Face" that we were able to watch. "We are the Lord's people and truly should be the happiest people on earth."  I hope everyone will be as happy as the Lord wants them to be.

Con amor,

Elder Parson

these pictures are of espinal, my comp and me deep frying cookies and pband j

My Comp and Me Deep Frying Cookies & PB&J

Deep fried cookies and PB&J

Espinal

Week 68: November 6, 2017. Amigitos!

Como me les va? todo chevre, que bueno

How ya'll doing? I am doing fantastic! Although I just wrote you guys, this week has been a good one. 

First off, I am so grateful for the training my President gave us this week. He showed the zone leaders that we weren't translating the ideas of the mission very well. So we got a chance to repent and make it better. Also to see my great friends from the mission was just amazing.

Right now I am in a little town of about 500 people and there is a branch here of about 100 members. It is a little part of heaven. It also has a lot of mangos, so I am excited to drink a lot of mango juice, USA problems when you don't have mango juice.  For two weeks, I will be working with Elder Murphy from Texas. He is a stud! He is 9 weeks into his training and he teaches super well. He testifies with power of the Atonement which is something so  amazing to have in a companionship. There is a lot of work with the members so we are going to try and have 20 references in these two weeks! I am super excited to be in this awesome town.

Well, as always, I can't send pictures but I want you guys to know that I love you guys and that this work is the most exciting work ever.

Have a great week--make it better than the last one.

Elder Parson

E-mail Week 67: November 2, 2017. Alba and Felipe Baptism.

So this week was awesome!!!!!!! 

I am going to be real quick because my email time is almost done.  The highlight of this week was the baptism of Alba and Felipe. I had the awesome opportunity to baptize Felipe. When we was  going in the water, he was jumping up and down because he was so excited. And then Alba and Felipe explained about the great change they have had from the gospel. They were super excited to experience this great change and they want to help their family have the same experience. It was awesome!

And that about sums up my week. We were able to go to consejo de liderazgo and be with my group. Something that I would just like to end with is this. Conversion is an experience in which we come to love the Lord and desire that by our thoughts, desires and actions, other people can come to love the Lord and delight in His grace.

I love you guys so much.  

Have a great week.

Elder Parson

Elder Parson, Alba, Felipe and Elder Ruiz

29th Anniversary for my Mission President and his Wife

Great to connect with my group from the MTC.