Newsletter Week 27

Hey Ya'll! How is it going? :)

Another great week has came and gone. This week we had Interviews with the President. I am so grateful for our Mission President, he is truly inspired by the Lord, he has been really stressing doing better planning sessions to help us have more success. He was explaining how we should think of all of the type of goals we are making and make sure we are not leaving anything out.

As I was thinking of that I was thinking how applicable that is to normal everyday life. We all have dreams and things we want to achieve, but if we don't diligently plan to achieve these goals, they really are only dreams. As we take the time to figure out what we really want, make a plan of how we are going to achieve it, ask the Lord for help in this we are so much more likely to achieve them!!

With that this week I was reading a talk from President Uchtdorf about patience... (This is still something I am working on;) and something that really stuck out to me was when he said something along the lines of "Patience isn't just waiting for something to happen, when we have patience, we do everything in our power to make it happen and wait willingly for it to happen in the Lords time.." he said it better than that.. but that was the main jist of it:)

I always just thought patience was willingly waiting for things to happen in the Lord's time, I never realized that part of patience is doing everything in your power to make it happen;) I really liked it, because it helped me see, that you should do everything in your power to get things done, but it is still in the Lords hands:)

I hope we can all work towards and plan for our dreams and do everything we can do and then have patience and trust in the Lord that it will happen in his time after all we can do.

This Sunday was stake conference.. and it was INCREDIBLE!! They focused on the family and isn't that all of our main goal? To have a successful family? I felt so blessed, because lately I have been putting a lot of thought and worry into my future family. I was feeling nervous that I could never be the mom that I want to be for my children, or that my idea of the "Perfect Wife" was out of my reach... and that the silly things I have been doing to help "prepare" myself like the past weeks I have been trying to learn how to cook, healthy and quickly, make sure I am always 100% ready for the day before I go out.. All these silly little things I had been doing to make myself a "better future wife" though they are important; are not the most important things I could be doing to make myself a better future mother or wife.

They focused on four main points that can make a truly successful family. They were:
1: Pray daily as a family:
There is power in family prayer, as we show our children and the Lord that He is first he will bless us and give us family unity. Our family relationships will be strengthened as well as our relationship with our Father in Heaven.

2: Read the scriptures as a family:
It doesn't have to be a lengthy amount, but as you teach your children that reading your scriptures is something that is important to you, it will become important to them. The scriptures give us strength and protect us, they warn us of times to come and teach us.

3: Do Family Home Evening:
Lessons learned in the home are the ones that last the longest. If Monday nights don't work, pick a different day of the week. But set aside a day for family, after all they are the most important thing to us right? Setting aside a day for just them shows that it is. You will have more family unity and get along throughout the week better.
- Start and end in a prayer
- Learn something from the scriptures
-play a game- or do a fun activity
- have a treat
but the most important thing is to BE CONSISTENT!
Each family home evening can be different, it doesn't have to be perfect, but just doing something together as a family will strengthen us immensely. Put it to the test, God always keeps his promises:)

4: Be actively engaged in the Church
Enjoy the activities the church puts on for us, they are wholesome and uplifting for the family.

The last thing that really hit me from stake conference that wanted to touch on was promise that really helped me. They talked about how we can best help our children to make good decisions, they said the best way is to TEACH THE THE DOCTRINES OF JESUS CHRIST if they understand the doctrine, they will want to do whats right and you will be helping your child achieve their righteous desires.

I was so grateful for this conference! isn't all that advice incredible! I found it interesting that they didn't say... "to have a successful family, mom, you must know how to cook delicious, healthy, quick meals" sure that is important also, but if that is not the recipe to have a successful family why was I putting so much emphasis on it? It really helped me realize that the best way I can prepare to be the best wife and mother I can be is to apply these gospel habits into myself. If I show my children how much I love the Lord, they too will love him.

I am so grateful to be here on my mission, I am learning so much! haha and sorry I talked so much about my future life in this email... don't worry, I'm not trunky.. :) Well I love you all so much! I know this church is true and as we put the Lord first in our lives and as we put him as the Head of our family we will be successful! Have a great week all!

Pictures:
Sister Clement and I with our home made lunch:)
6 month mark pics
Martinez family making "Nopales"

Newsletter Week 26

This week was awesome!! This newsletter is going to be a little bit shorter, because we don't have very much time today. But I want to tell you about a couple highlights of the week!

So we have been teaching this girl, she is a cheerleader at Prairie View College and has the sweetest spirit ever! This week we were teaching her the Plan of Salvation and it was crazy how ready she was to receive it! She loved the Spirit world and how God gives people a second chance to accept him. She was blown away by the whole plan and it was really a blessing to be apart of it! It made me so happy to be a missionary! I felt so blessed to be able to be the person who got to share all of this exciting stuff with her! We invited her to be baptized and she accepted and set the date for the 9th of May! :) the day before Mothers day! ;) So that will be a super great weekend. She came to church this sunday and experienced her first LDS Service. The members here are so loving and helped her to feel so welcome! I am so blessed to be here serving out here! 

I love you all so much, I know that this church is true and I am seeing it change lives. I hope we all take the opportunity to share the Gospel with all those we come in contact with! I am so grateful for it in my life. I know that our Savior loves us, he lives and he is with us in every moment. Thank you guys for all of your support you have given to me on my mission! :)
Have a great week!

Newsletter Week 25

This week was awesome!
Highlight of the week was definitely having 3 of our investigators come to church!

We have been meeting an Inactive in the ward from Liberia, she is so awesome! But anyways we have been meeting with her the last couple of weeks and this week when we got there she introduced us to her Great-Granddaughter. So we started talking with her to find out that she used to take the missionary lessons when she lived in California. As we started talking to her we found out that she already has a ton of knowledge of the Gospel, we invited her to come to church this sunday and she came! We set up a baptismal date with her for May 9th. We are super excited to continue to work with her!
The other investigator who came is the mom of a recent convert. She has a lot of health problems, and still made it a priority to make it to church. The faith of these great people is really so inspiring to me, I feel so blessed to be able to work with them. We have a baptismal date set with her for April 26th. She is so excited to be baptized, it makes me so excited! She often bares her testimony of how she know that being baptized will help her become closer to Jesus Christ. She truly is an incredible lady.
The third investigator that came to church this week is also incredible. She too has many health problems and has a difficult time leaving her home. She took the faith to come to church this week, I am so inspired by all of these people. We are so blessed with good health, it is not physically difficult for us to get up and go to church, we have so many reasons to go. This sweet investigator had expressed her fear of leaving her home, and she still came. What an example for all of us. She has a baptismal date for June 6th.
I love my mission, I am seeing this Gospel change peoples lives. Think of the change it has made in you? Who would you be without it? It is our responsibility to share this amazing message of the Restored Gospel with others. Thank you all for all of your love and support to me on my mission. I love you guys and hope you have a great week!

Newsletter Week 24

This week was a good week:) 

Today is Transfers day, and me and Sister Clement are both staying in Waller, but we are moving to a different house, we are going to be living with a member now! So that will be great, we are super excited:) 

Conference was awesome! I loved how much they focused on the family:) I am so grateful to be out here on a mission to learn how to be a better family member, for my family and also for my future family:) 

One of my favorite quotes was from President Uchtdorf "We obey the commandments of God out of love for Him, you will be refined, loved and improved." Keeping commandments isn't easy, but we do it because we love him and if we do He will bless us!

Sorry this weeks newsletter is so short! I love you all and my new address is:


Sister Tiffany Parslow
38860 Wyatt Chapel Road
Hempstead, Tx 77445

Pictures:
Me being terrified of the Chicken, and then getting my cool for the picture..
Sis Clement and I bought cake from a street vender:)