For the record I never, ever, EVER want to leave Talara! Transfers are still a month away but I´m already getting anxiety -- I have the best area filled with the best people and with the best companion!
Saturday was Ellie´s baptism!!!!! It was so beautiful. Seriously. I was SO happy with the support we received from the branch. Almost all the young women were there along with the branch presidency and other leaders and missionaries. My heart was full seeing that room filled! Ellie was very excited and even bore her testimony afterwards. The funny part was while she was changing and everyone was writing notes of congratulations to her and the suddenly THE POWER WENT OUT! Seriously it was pitch black in there. We ended up finishing the service with phone lights, ha! The funniest part though is that we had already picked Jesus es mi luz for the closing hymn. Just imagine -- pitch black room, all of us singing Jesus is my light with all the energy we had, it was awesome!
On Friday we spent the morning with Hna Celina helping her for her parrillada! A parrillada is where you make a BBQ type dish and sell it to raise money then deliver them. We cut about 987 potatoes -- it was so fun to help them out! La familia Roman is progressing so well - they are keeping all the commandments even if it means walking to church with their 4 kids because they don´t have enough money or paying their meager fast offering. My favorite part of this whole week was on Saturday kneeling in a circle on their dirt floor with the whole family to start their fast. They are so wonderful!! Then today they did another activity for our zone -- Juanes! A food from la selva. We all loved it!
I had an exchange with Hna Richan this week! My 3rd exchange with her, ha! I love that girl. We basically talked the whole time about HOW STINKING FAST time goes by and how we need to enjoy every single day!!! HnaRichan is a wonderful example of diligence and charity -- always teaching me something!
We did divisions twice this week with members! We have a new secret weapon!!! Her name is Rosemary Eche and she just got home from her mission in Bolivia! (Taylor Pulsipher trainer her!!!!) She is one of the sweetest people ever and is helping us out a ton!
This week we had a cool experience with 2 new investigators, Levi and Katherine. Levi is 18 but already has a baby and is going through a lot of problems with his girlfriend. When he walked in the room and saw us there with his mom he rushed over and began to seek help and guidance for what he´s going through. You could see in his eyes his desire to repent and start fresh. It was one of my favorite lessons I´ve ever taught -- we taught of repentance and baptism and The Restoration of the gospel. The whole time I was thinking about HOW this message can bless Levi and help him get through this trial. I realized that I need to have the same kind of love, concern, and concentration with EVERY person we teach, according to their specific needs.
We all have the desperate need to repent in our lives. We all owe an incredible debt to our Savior Jesus Christ. But the beauty of this message is that we can ALL repent and thanks to His sacrifice, we can be clean.
Family, I can´t wait to talk to you on Sunday!!!!!! Especially you, mama!
Love,
hermana parks
Ellie's baptism!
helping out with the parrillada for la familia roman! cutting potatoes
one more from the baptism! Presidente Eche (district president) baptized Ellie.
eda, joel, hno martin, and celina with la familia rosales for FHE!
all the zone eating juanes -- it´s a food from the jungle made by hna Celina for her activity to raise money for their wedding!
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