Newsletter Week 75

Hey y'all! I hope you all had a great week. This week was full of
miracles. Like really llena! :) first off we went to the temple with
Sandra to do baptisms for her mom and dad. It was so so so Special!
She said as she walked in that she felt as if she had just stepped
into Heaven. :)
We also recently had the opportunity to go to the temple and do the
temple work for our own ancestor. We had to find our own name of
family search and then we went to the temple and performed the work
for them. The experience I had was incredible. I can feel the presence
of the Lord so powerfully in the temple. Like really it is incredible.
I know the work we do in the temple is real. We are the only church
with these sacred ordinances that Jesus Christ established restored
once again.
Saturday Eduardo got baptized! It was so awesome to be able to see his
conversion. We found him outside his apartment about two months ago..
And he has completely changed his life. His baptism was beautiful. Man
I love this work. I have made so many great friendships.. It is going
to be really hard to leave this land.
Also two of my recent converts moved into the Ward this Week! So i am
super happy I get to see them again:)
Sunday was the highlight of the week, Sandra, Victor and Suamy, three
of the recent converts I love so much got up and bore their testimony
about the truthfulness of the gospel and how it has changed their
lives. I was so full of joy I couldn't stop smiling to ear to ear. The
Lord really is at the helm of his work. This is his true gospel. It is
complete. I love it and it fills me so full of joy! I hope you all had
a great safe Easter weekend and were able to ponder more on the
resurrection of Jesus Christ. I love you so much and am super excited
to see y'all Soon! Take care!

Pics:
At the temple with Sandra
Eduardo's baptism
We were out contacting and all the sudden the concrete started to act
like a caterpillar #whoknows

Newsletter Week 74

Hey no time! This week was a good one! We have seen so many miracles

so I can't complain. We have Eduardo's baptism this week, so so good:)

I am super excited! I hope you have a great week. The church is true

and the book is blue:)




Pics: we went to the temple this week! So happy.

We went to our investigators house for our appointment and she tried

to cancel with is because she was painting.. We quickly informed her

we were actually professional painters too. She laughed and let us in.

#missionarylife :)

Making sopes with the Alcantaras

Newsletter Week 73 "I Know"

Hey y'all! So I am greenie breaking my new companion, her name is Hermana VanDyke. She is from Virginia, so that's cool:) she is really sweet. Things here have been going pretty good, really not much new. Just teaching, knocking and planning.. That pretty much sums up my missionary life haha. I love the people here so much, I am so grateful I get to finish my mission in good old Jersey Village:)
I titled this newsletter "I know" because I wanted to share some things that I know with you.
If any of you are having a hard time keeping your faith in the the restored gospel, I want you to know that I love you..so much and I am here to help.
I know that this gospel is true. I haven't always known, I have hoped that it was true and trusted that it was true, heck, I even went on a mission trusting and hoping it was true.. But now I KNOW it is true. I know it as much as I know that I have a family that loves me, i know it because I feel it, because of the evidences God has given us, such as the Book of Mormon, Temple Ordinances and Living prophets.
The more I study the scriptures, and especially the bible, the more my testimony grows concerning Joseph Smith and the restored church. There are so many evidences, but that doesn't make people believe. Think of when Jesus Christ himself was on the Earth, he could have given proof after proof after proof that he was the son of God, but he didn't and he didn't do it because he asks us to have faith. "And now as I said concerning faith--faith is not to have a perfect knowledge of things; therefore if ye have faith ye hope for things which are not seen, which are true." Alma 32:21
I have never seen the original plates of the Book of Mormon, I wasn't present when God presented himself to Joseph Smith. BUT IT HAPPENED! I believe in what I didn't see, because it is true. "The Lord taught His Apostle Thomas, who wanted physical evidence of the Savior’s Resurrection by touching His wounds, that revelation is safer evidence: “Jesus saith unto him, Thomas, because thou hast seen me, thou hast believed: blessed are they that have not seen, and yet have believed” (John 20:29).
The truths that mark the way home to God are verified by the Holy Ghost. We cannot go to the grove and see the Father and the Son speak to the young Joseph Smith. No physical evidence or any logical argument can establish that Elijah came as promised to confer the priesthood keys now held and exercised by a living prophet, Thomas S. Monson.
Confirmation of truth comes to a son or daughter of God who has claimed the right to receive the Holy Ghost. Since falsehoods and lies may be presented to us at any time, we need a constant influence of the Spirit of Truth to spare us moments of doubt." (Those were not my words haha hence the close quote)
I know that there is so much anti-Mormon doctrine, frankly I have had it thrown at me many times during my mission, and some of it may appear so truthful, but remember that the Devil works so hard against the true church to make it appear false. Our mission president gave us some good advice concerning how to maintain a strong testimony.
Let's say our testimony is a tree, the roots are our base, our fundamental knowledge. This is what's important, don't get so caught up in a little doubt out on a leaf that you forget to start from the roots.
We will know the truth by the power of the Holy Ghost, it will bear testimony to us that this the true church if we ask.
"While a member of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles, George Q. Cannon urged that we make a constant quest for the Spirit to be with us. He promised, and I promise it as well, ( that if we is is president Russell M Nelson talking) pursue that course, we “will never lack for knowledge” of the truth, “never be in doubt or in darkness,” and our “faith will be strong, [our] joy … full.”"
I invite you all to kneel down today and re-ask for the confirmation that Joseph Smith was a true Prophet, the truth is inside of you and you will remember that it is true. I love you, I am here for you. I know this is true. In the name of Jesus Christ, amen.
Hermana Parslow

Newsletter Week 72

Hey hey! I hope y'all had a great week, this week was super busy. I
don't even know where it went. I had MLC, we learned more about how to
better teach the commandment of baptism. Our mission has the goal of
baptizing 600 converts this year, we are super pumped! And so far we
are doing pretty good to stay on track:)
We also had a meeting with Sister Oscarson.... Bragging moment.. I
HUGGED THE RELIEF SOCIETY PRESIDENT OF THE WORLD! She is so sweet, you
can just feel the love her and her counselors have for the saints:)
they talked about the love the Lord has for us:)
We then had zone meeting:) it went good... And this week is the
dreaded transfer call week... And Hermana Gayler is out. :( I am gonna
miss her so so so much! she was a great companion. And that means that
I am ending my mission here in Jersey Village. Haha good thing I love
the people so much in this Ward:)
Not a ton new here:) I love y'all! Have a great week.

Pics:
Insanity this morning... #killer I am super excited to be able to
really workout again.. #sofun :)
The Alcantara family, Hermano went to Mexico this week and brought us
back Valeros to play with.
We were out contacting and met a famous soccer player from El Salvador
Our zone :)

Newsletter Week 71

Hey Y'all! I hope you are doing great. This week was a good one:) we
have been so busy! Which is great as a missionary.
 This week we had the baptism of Sandra! Haha what an experience that
was.. She has been so so prepared in her teaching, we had to have some
sort of problem. Let me tell the story:
Sandra's baptism:
So we are super duper excited for Sandra's baptism and we go to the
church to fill up the font and set everything up. So we fill up the
font and all is good. The water is warm, the chairs are in line, the
hymn books are placed this was going to be the best baptism ever.
Anyways members start to arrive and things are looking great. We look
at the font again... About 15 minutes before the baptism was going to
start and there is only 1 foot of water... We tried to find the source
of the problem and realized it was the plug. Let me explain this plug
to you... It is about as wide as a tortilla and exactly as thick as a
tortilla and also about as strong as a flimsy tortilla... So when we
put it over the gaping whole of a drain when the water gets heavy it
buckles under the pressure turns into a taco into the drain, while the
water quickly goes down the drain. So I hike up my dress and brave the
water to try to kindly place it back over the drain. It seems to be a
success. We turn the water back on and pretend that nothing happened.
The baptism starts and during the opening prayer we hear a pop and a
whirlwind of water sound. My comp and I just freeze in our seats. Well
one of our super brave elders decides he will brave the water and go
try to figure it out. So he goes back there and we just sit there
pretending to be calm and listen to the speaker... We hear the gasps
from the elder, and just pray all was going well. After 3 or 4 minutes
the other Elder goes back there to find out what was going on. What
they didn't know is that the room back there echoes so we heard
everything they said. "Elder.... HELP ME." Meanwhile.... The
missionary special musical number comes up. So my Companion, me, and
just one of the elders sang. Poor elder had to sing a solo and was
scared to death, because his comp was occupied with the tank. Well
that went ok. Well the baptism was up and the elder who had went to go
check out the font was still back there.. So I go back to investigate
because the elder was supposed to be a witness. Some go back there and
see the elder IN THE FONT IN HIS SUIT! And he was drenched! He had
jumped in in his suit replaces the plug. Well Sandra gets up to go to
the font, and the sopping wet elder came out just in time to stand as
a witness of the baptism of Sandra in 2.5 feet of chilly cold water.
What a baptism that was.
Well that's about all that comes to my mind when I think of this week.
I have MLC this week, so that should be exciting. Not much more to say
about this week, the time is going by so fast it makes me nervous. I
love y'all! Have a great week:)

Pics:
Sandra's baptism.
Heart attacking our best friends car
Insanity with our new friends... They renamed me Paris because they
can't say my name.. Haha :)

Newsletter Week 70 ... I think :)

Hey y'all! I hope y'all had a great week!

This week was interesting none the less.. Haha if I was to title it..
It would most likely be Creepy Men Week. The warmer the weather gets
the creepier the men get too. Haha this week my Comp and I lied about
being married so many times. But honestly what makes a person think
they can be so bold and straight up creepy I will never know. All is
well that ends well.

Back about the work. This week we had zone conference.... My. Very.
Last. One. So so so sad! I had to give my "dying" testimony... Man it
was hard. As I contemplated and tried to put in words how I felt about
my mission it was so hard! I love my mission so so much, it has
definitely been the hardest thing I have ever done. Hands down. But I
have never been happier. Seeing the gospel change people's lives
changes me.

Like our sweet sweet investigator that is getting baptized this
Saturday. She inspires me so much. She recently came here from her
country and was having a hard time adjusting to the American culture.
Her cousin in California (who is a member) told her about the church
and she agreed to listen to missionaries. I have seen this gospel
change her completely, just a month ago she was filled with fear and
felt so lonely. She has been filled with a new confidence and so much
faith. In her job she kept asking for Sunday's off so she could attend
all three hours of church instead of having to leave after sacrament
meeting. She asked and asked but he refused to give Sunday's to her.
She talked to us about her concern, we taught her about fasting and
the power it has. We invited her to do a 24 hour fast to ask Heavenly
Father for help. We promised we would do it with her. Well last week
we all fasted together and this week she decided to QUIT HER JOB!!! We
she told me my eyes filled with tears. I have never met an
investigator with so much faith. I love her so much. She inspires me
to be better, she searches the scriptures, she says sincere prayers
and her testimony is so strong. Man I feel so blessed to know her.

This week we also had a Ward activity put on by la obra
misional...(honestly I cannot figure out how to say that correctly in
English.... But what it is is the full time missionaries and the Ward
mission leader:) we did activities and games and learned about how the
Holy Ghost works.. It was one of the funnest activities I've ever had
on the mission:) super fun:) I should have taken some pics:)

Haha a dumb moment of my week.. So we were at the park with a recent
convert... And I decided to try and be cool (lame I know;) and do this
pull up thing and then grab a bar above my head with one arm while
holding the pull up... Well the first one went great, so I got all
kinds of confidence and went to do it again and totally messed up my
shoulder... So that's the worst.. Haha it's been hurting all week...
-_-

Well love you all so much! Thank you for everything. Hope you have a
great week.

Pics:
Sandra! :)
Comp and I out jumping in puddles welcoming in Texas rain season:)
We found this poor kitty that had manges disease... And it pulled on
our heart stings so we ran to Walmart and bought it its last meal.
#catlovers
Video: we got a new life... (;

Newsletter Week 69

Hey!!! I hope yall had a super great week!!!
Things here have been so good. Stressful but good.
So so so many blessings! Our investigator got baptized!!!! His wife is a member and they are seriously the cutest couple in the world. I have never met people as in love as them, serious future marriage goal status.. well they just had a super cute little boy too... anyways back to the point. His wife is a member and he is nice and comes to church and even reads from the Book of Mormon, but has never wanted to be baptized a member. He had some serious doubts by hearing some Mormon myths about the book of Mormon and Jose Smith. Well his wife has just loved him through his journey knowing if the church is true, she was so patient even though she often mentioned about her goal about being sealed in the temple with him.
Well we went over on Monday night and had a family home evening, we talked about eternal families and talked to him about being sealed in the temple with his family, he said he really wanted to. We said to prepare to be able to be sealed he needs to be baptized. He agreed to be baptized and got baptized on Friday!! He has been investigating the church so long! And he finally made the decision to put his trust in his faith and leave his doubts behind. Him and his wife were just beaming at their baptism.
Our mission president always talks to us about raising our vision to the temple, and helping our investigators do the same. This week I was able to see the fruits of that. I feel so so so blessed and happy. So many many miracles! :)
Love you all!!!


pics:
happy valentines day all:)
One of my favorite members ever:)
The one of the piñata, we were out contacting, and we asked this lately if we could share a 2 minute message of Jesus Christ with her, she told us that she was too busy and preceded to talk for 20 minutes about piñatas she makes... they were super awesome piñatas though!! :)
Rey's Baptism!! :)
Dinner last night: Fish head and baby shrimp rice.. Yummmmm... :) #youknowIloveSeafood




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Love, Hermana Parslow