Newsletter Week 64

Hey! This week was such a crazy one!! Super stressful, but super good.
This Tuesday I had MLC, and we learned about how are mission is doing, and may I just say that I am in the best mission in the world!! He showed a graph of convert baptisms, and the mission is doing significantly better than it has done in the past 15 years! We have such an inspired Mission President. He really pushes us to be our best, but it is definitely worth it:)


Some exciting news is that President Russell M. Nelson is coming to our very own little Spanish Stake at the end of this month!!!!!! I am so excited:) We are the last pure Spanish speaking stake in the United States... so we are expecting something pretty big to be happening.


This week I was feeling pretty stressed, we had a baptism to plan, I had zone meeting to plan, I had to speak in Sacrament Meeting, annnd we had to teach Gospel Principles, on top of that were struggling getting many of our key indicator goals for the week, and honestly I was just feeling super duper stressed with all of it. I honestly just wanted to give up, but I decided to say a prayer for help instead. I felt prompted to open the scriptures and I opened up to Mosiah 24:14


"14 And I will also ease the burdens which are put upon your shoulders, that even you cannot feel them upon your backs, even while you are in bondage; and this will I do that ye may stand as witnesses for me hereafter, and that ye may know of a surety that I, the Lord God, do visit my people in their afflictions.".


It gave me the comfort I needed, and the Lord did help me through it. I was able to teach and example role play in Zone Meeting, He helped me give the talk, we taught the class and we achieved many of the Key Indicator goals we were trying to reach. And Fernanda had a beautiful Baptism:)


I honestly love my mission so much. I have learned and grown more than I ever could have imagined. It has been the hardest, best thing of my life. I love the Hispanic people. I love Texas:) I love my Heavenly Father.


I hope you all have a great week!! :)
--

Love, Hermana Parslow

Newsletter Week 63

Hey yall:) This week flew by so fast! It was truly a week of miracles.
We have been working a lot with the unknown members (trying to find them and get to know them) of the ward and have seen so many miracles through it this week:) We have found that many of them really want to come back, they just need someone to reach out and invite them. This week, we had 3 new Less active families come to church, and 2 of them brought their neighbors!! It was such a miracle.
I hope yall had a very happy new years, and put some good new goals. I am excited for 2016 and all the things it brings:) And to grow even closer to Heavenly Father.
I went on exchanges this week, with one of the Hermanas in my zone that is still in training. I love being around the new missionaries and feeling of their excitement for the work:)
Well love yall, hope ya have a great week!

Pic: We made these flowers out of Jolly Ranchers with the Young Women in the ward and delivered them to our 15 year old investigator with them:)
--

Love, Hermana Parslow

Newsletter Week 62

Hey ya'll! :) I hope you had a very Merry Christmas.


This week we had the Baptism of Victor!! yay! It was definitely the highlight of the week:) He is so awesome and is going to be such a great member.



So I got to try my hand at making some homemade corn tortillas this weeks. The Hispanics use nothing but their hands.. at first they weren't very pretty... but I eventually got the hang of it.. and can now say that I am pretty good at making homemade tortillas, even the Hispanics approved :) haha


The other day one of our investigators had us over for Lunch and he pulled out these TINY peppers. Like the size of a seed. He told us to try one. The only thing is... we didn't know you weren't supposed to eat it plain! So right away our faces turned red and our eyes watered. It was SUPER spicy, I will most definitely not be eating those again any time soon.


We had the Christmas conference this past week! It was fun to have all of the missionaries in the whole mission gathered together. We never gather together with so many of us at the same time. We sang Christmas Carols, ate dinner, and watched the Nativity. There was a part called Christmas around the world where President Mortensen had the foreign missionaries talk about what Christmas is like in their countries, it was really interesting to hear missionaries from all over the world share their experiences.


I learned something really cool there that I wanted to share:)
So we all know the gifts that the three wise men brought:
Frankincense: used by those who were able to enter into the temple, it was used at the alter of sacrifice. When they burnt it it would emanate a sweet smell that would drift into the entire city. Which would draw and invite others to go to the temple.
Myrrh: Used in burials.
Gold: The finest metal that could be given.
Our Mission President went on to deepen our understanding about the symbolism behind each of these gifts, and how these are still the gifts that the Lords wise servants still give.
Frankincense: Represents sharing the sweetness of the gospel with others, and helping people find their way to the temple.
Myrrh: Is doing the work for the dead.(Family History/Temple Work)
Gold: Our very best efforts, doing all we can to keep the commandments and be faithful members of his church:)
I know as we love the savior we will strive to give him our best gifts!



Christmas Day was pretty good, we opened our presents, and my mom sent like this scripture chase thing, where on each gift there was a scripture written, and you had to look up the scripture and guess what the gift was. We had a blast. And we made Gingerbread Houses with our District:) It was really fun too, And then I got to talk to the family. It was so good to see them all:) I have truly been blessed with a great family:)


Then Christmas Day we went out to do some Missionary work, we ended up finding 2 new investigators! I am really excited to work with them, we went back to their house on Sunday:)
Christmas day we also got to have a lesson with some new investigators that we had found earlier in the week, they said the didn't have family here.. so they decided the invite us over:)


Well life is great!!! I love you all!! Hope you have a great week :)
Sorry this week's is so long... haha just had a ton to share:)

Newsletter week 61

Hey guys! I hope you have a very merry Christmas!
Things are going really good here, I got a new companion. She is the
cutest thing in the world! We get along great and work really hard
together... The only problem is that she also a gymnast.. So instead
of sleeping we stay up practicing gymnastics and seeing what we can
still do:) haha it is great fun:) but man we are tired....
This week has been a week of miracles! The investigator we have been
working with finally got an answer to her prayers! Heavenly Father
gave her a dream as an answer, and on Sunday she came up and told us
she received her answer and is ready to get baptized! My heart is
full:)
Victor is getting baptized this Saturday, his conversion has been a
long time coming, but he has trusted in his faith and gotten over his
doubts. God is good:)
We have a big week coming up, tomorrow I have a special training
meeting, Wednesday is our missionary Christmas conference, then
Christmas Eve... And then I GET TO TALK TO MY FAMILY!!! :) I am super
excited. Well I love you all, and hope you feel the Holy Spirit this
Christmas season:)

MERRY CHRISTMAS!!:):)

Love this family!

Newsletter Week 60

Hey y'all! So I don't have very much time today, but thinks have been
so good here!
I feel so blessed to be able to see Belzazar baptize his son! He has
come so far in the past 5 months. Watching him baptize his son really
put a new definition of my joy being full. His life is so different
now.
Also Theodora entered into the waters of baptism! What a blessing! I
seriously feel like she is my 2nd grandma. She is super awesome:)
Transfers came this week, and I getting my new companion.
Love ya all! Have a great week.