Feliz Navidad!!!!

Merry Christmas everyone!

This week was a really good one. We ended the last week feeling bad for bad numbers and feeling like we hardly worked. We decided to make this week the best one we've had this transfer and it totally happened.

We had intercambios (exchanges) this week. My companion stayed in the area and I went with Hermana Orgill to her area in Puebla. She's from Highland, Utah and is just as tall and white as I am. We were quite the pair walking down the streets. However, I learned a lot from her, especially about contacting people in the street, which I've always had trouble with. She gave me the talk by Todd D Christoffersen called "Becoming a Consecrated Missionary". I have never been so chastised in all my mission. It was awesome!! I totally agree with everything that I read and can't wait to really start applying what I learned from it.

We saw a lot of miracles this week. One of them was a new investigator that we found named Martina. We had received the name of her daughter as a reference and miraculously her mom (Martina) let us in and began to talk to us. Although she's really nervous about the thought of changing the religion that her parents and grandparents taught her, she's willing to learn and at the very least get to know our religion. 

The other was when we were returning to our town where we live, Libres, from a little town we work in called Texcal. It was nice and dark and the car we were in was very....very.....VERY....old. Old enough that the headlights turn on and off by themselves a lot. So, the road would kinda disappear every five seconds. My companion got really nervous and so did the driver although he was very calm and kept making jokes of it. Luckily, we made it home just fine.

This week I got tired of a group of guys that hang out on the side of the street, drinking, and always wolf-whistle and cat-call and say inappropriate things to me and Hermana Adam. The other noticeably white sister here, so I decided to contact them. Probably not the smartest thing I could have done but I wanted them to know exactly who I was and what I was doing there in their town. Although they were drinking they were very respectful and funny. Afterwards, I thanked them for their time and invited them again to see the video "He is the Gift" and asked them for a favor. I told them, "When you see me in the street, I'm Hermana Parslow." They said a few more things but I made it very clear that I didn't want anymore whistles or inappropriate words, just Hermana Parslow. I haven't had the chance to see if it worked because I think they changed their hang-out spot but at the very least I'll be able to hold them to it if I see them again because they all promised. ; )
I hope you all have a wonderful Christmas and can enjoy all of the wonderful gifts that our Father in Heaven has given you this last year and can think about what you're all going to give to Him this coming year.
MERRY CHRISTMAS!!!

9 months!!!

We had our Christmas Zone Conference on Tuesday and since we had to go into Puebla it was a whole day kind of thing. =) However, the conference was amazing. We talked a lot about traditions and how important they are for our future families and keeping everyone united. We sang Christmas Carols with chimes and did the 12 Days of Christmas both the original and the mission version. It was hilarious! We also played Bonko! It was super fun! I won a mini snow globe for the most "baby bonkos". =)

We went to visit some of the little towns we have in our area that we haven't been able to visit very much. It was so beautiful and a lot of fun going with the members. The only bad part is that it also turned into an all day thing because one town is almost an hour away and we hit the Virgin Mary traffic on the way back so it was super slow going.

Friday we stayed in the house all day because it was the Day of the Virgin and every closes down their shops and are out in the streets. It's one of the big celebrations and few reasons that the Catholics have to go to church. There's a big race kinda thing that kinda is like the Olympic torch run. Everyone decorates their cars and bikes with the Virgen de Guadalupe (Virgin Mary) and go from one end of Mexico to Mexico City to see a framed picture of the Virgin that...appeared there randomly one day. It's a huge thing and even though we felt it wasn't that dangerous, we figured it was better to follow what the President and the Lord wanted rather than to find out why they had asked us to stay home.

Sunday I gave my first talk in this ward about love and charity. Since we got there early, the bishop asked one of us to talk because the person assigned wouldn't be coming. The lot fell to me because I had gotten sick the day I was originally supposed to talk in church when I got here.

We've been continuing to visit with Jose Abel and he is just golden! We taught the restoration and asked him to pray if Joseph Smith was a prophet as his homework. He said, "First of all, praying is never homework and second, I will do it but I can already say that Joseph Smith was a prophet and that Jesus Christ restored His church here on the earth."..... What?! I know! I was just dumbfounded. He's amazing. This man didn't even believe in God 2 months ago! He is so wonderful and just loves the gospel. It truly is an amazing experience to sit back and watch the Lord do His work while we don't do anything. Seriously. Nothing. Wow, is the Lord amazing.

He is the Gift

Something I forgot to mention that I learned last Monday. Do not leave all the windows and the back door open while doing laundry and cleaning the house. It's very possible that two little sparrows will enter and begin to cause chaos. =)

This week we had an interesting contrast in experiences. First, we went to visit one of our investigators, named Esperanza that had finally committed to come to church after a great lesson but when we went to visit her this last time, she was overly friendly and just acting kinda funny. We entered her house where she had a small fire pit burning and where her music about the catholic church was just blasting. We only sat for 4 or 5 minutes before we began to feel that we had to leave. She asked us to sing a hymn for her and we did. Then she wanted us to read from the Bible but we continued to feel funny and like we needed to get out of there. We said that we actually had to leave because we had gotten sick during the day and needed to return home. (Not a complete lie) We got out of the house and stood outside the door talking to a young man who helps out Esperanza with her Lavanderia (laundry service). He then confirmed our suspicions that she was drunk...very drunk. She then came out and tried to get us to enter back in, telling us just how much she loved us but we continued to say we needed to leave and left. We both felt a little shaken to have seen her that way and to have seen the danger she had put herself and others in. When we returned to the house, we talked about it and what had happened and began to realize Satan's part in the situation and then God's part and how He had protected us from who knows what could have happened. We both began to feel a little nervous and jumpy but after we said a prayer and asked for help, we both felt instantly safe and comforted. We have not seen her since. It really kinda shook us both to realize that we had been looking Satan right in the face. This woman is wonderful and sweet and really wants to follow Christ, but as we read in the bible dictionary about Satan this week, one of his greatest tools is convincing God's children that they are following God while they are truly following Satan. How sad is that? However, even as we realized the power of Satan and just how real he is, we both agreed that it was incredible knowing that our Heavenly Father loved us and that He would always protect us.

The contrasting experience that we had was with another investigator named Jose Abel. He was an atheist who is beginning to believe in God and not only in his Heavenly Father but also in His church. He's been reading the Book of Mormon and has beginning to feel a change in his life. We all are surprised but how quickly he's been progressing. He came to church this Sunday and we thought that at the end he didn't like it at all. Especially because we could see the irreverence of the members and everything that was going wrong. When we saw his face after the services it was very very serious and we were worried to talk to him thinking that he was going to tell us all kinds of bad things he saw that he never wanted to come back. (Funny how we tend to expect the worse.) However, when we talked to him he just said that he was in awe. He loved the way the Church ran the services and all of the people. He said that although he now had more doubts and questions than ever, he just wanted to continue learning and understanding. Also, that he was never going to leave our church and that he would definitely be coming back. When we invited him to the Christmas Devotional that night he said that he would come to anything that we invited him too. I am so excited to see his progress and am so impressed with the Lord! It's an amazing privilege to watch the Lord at work

Making History

So this transfer is going to be something rather awesome! Not just because it's going to be Christmas but because my companion is Hermana Vazquez and she's from...drumroll please....California! Yup, my companion is an american too and she's amazing. We are the first real companion of American sisters that this mission has ever had. It's a little weird at times being able to talk in English in the house but she is so much fun and so freaking sweet, I just love her!

My new area is called Libres. It's a little town in the middle of nowhere. We're about two hours from Puebla City and it's an adorable little town. I'm not gonna lie, I absolutely love walking in the street and someone passes with their mule and cart going off to town.

I had the wonderful privilege of getting very very sick this last week and ended up staying home a few days. My companion took wonderful care of me and the members were super great to stay with me and leave with her so that she could visit some of our investigators. For a bit I couldn't figure out why I now was sick, especially when i was so excited to work in this area but as I prayed for health and for understanding to be patient, I began to see the other purposes God had and was accomplishing thanks to me being sick. The members got to serve and receive blessings they needed. My companion got to prove to herself that she really can help our investigators and other people. Sister Adam, whose companion went home early, got a chance to just talk out all of her feelings while she sat for a few hours with me while our companions left to work. I got to put in some really good study time and learn to pray more sincerely and really submit myself to His will. What a blessing it can be to receive the understanding of why our Heavenly Father puts somethings in our lives.

We had a really good conference with Elder Torris from the Quorum of the 70 this week and I wanted to share some quotes with you guys.

"We hasten the work when we are EXACTLY OBEDIENT."

"Anyone can teach well but what makes us different is we teach by the Spirit."

"Talking bad about someone is like throwing rocks up in the air....they're going to fall down directly on your head."

"We don't need Worthy Zombies." =)

"Our experiences in the mission (or spiritual experiences in life) allow us to touch Heaven." 

"YOU are an investigator of your Heavenly Father."

I love you guys and hope you have a wonderful week!!

Oh, and HAPPPY DECEMBER!! :D:D:D:D

 

Putting up the Christmas count down that was sent from home

                                                   Scenery from the bus ride to the new city

 

Cambios

We found out on Wednesday that we're closing our area which means that we both have transfers and will be leaving the area so this last week has been CRAZY!  But, no worries we have finally got everything ready for the next missionaries that are coming tomorrow. We deep cleaned our house which I'm pretty sure was the first deep cleaning it's received in....in the last.....5 years...but seriously, we took out 5 huge bags of garbage but now the house is cleaner than it's ever been. =) 

My companion and I are both sad and excited to move on to a new area. We're both sad because we started finding new people to teach, like Carolina.  She's an old investigator that we went and visited. She's very very VERY interesting. She doesn't believe in prophets, or the Bible, or things that are good and bad, that God is perfect, and the most interesting part is that she doesn't believe that Satan is the devil. She feels like he was a misunderstood young man and that it was God's fault that Satan did what he did. She also told us that she will ALWAYS defend him. ... I know, we think she's pretty crazy too but she's super nice and friendly. We laugh a ton when we're with her and on the plus side she sells delicious bolis.

The other day we contacted an older lady named Patricia while looking for some old investigators. She ended up knowing a lot about the Bible and agreed to read the Book of Mormon and meet with the missionaries to...share her opinions. It was actually the first time that I actually got upset while contacting someone because she said that she had never heard of Jesus coming to the Americas and I brought up the scripture when Jesus says "Other sheep I have which are not of this fold." She interrupted me and said, "Christ never said that he would come to the Americas Güerra!" That's when I got frustrated and retorted, "He never said he wouldn't!" I let my companion finish the contact after that. We both got frustrated later and had to have companionship inventory afterwards :)

Yesterday we were in the combi heading to church when my companion looked at me and touched her left shoulder. I was confused for a moment at why she had a look of terror on her face while touching her shoulder. Then I saw that she had forgotten her name tag. I laughed as she told me that now she was just going to be a member with everyone else. We later went back and got it in the house. 

It's been interesting and amazing being in this area. I've had the blessing of seeing the changes in our investigators. (Naim has now received the Aaronic priesthood and is going to be a counselor in the Teachers Quorum). 

Martin's aunt now loves us when in the beginning she was as cold as the artic. =) and in the members (people who never wanted the missionaries were super sad when we told them we were both leaving. Hermana Sam...ward mission leader...was so sad that he took us to a park and hung out with us for almost an hour. His wife cried as she told us goodbye. Also, the bishop's wife who never wanted anything to do with the Sister missionaries told us how much she loved us and was saying goodbye to us with wise words of wisdom for over 20 minutes...it was great to see that change but a little frustrating when we had to go. = )

It's been a wonderful blessing to be in the Juarez ward and I'm so grateful for the chance that I had to be here. I can truly testify that the Lord sends His missionaries to where He needs them. 

I love you guys so much! Thank you so much for all of your love and support and prayers!!  

 

                             Sammie my favorite little girl in the La Paz Ward

                                    Missionaries that I served with in the La Paz Stake

 

                                   Saying Good Bye to the Ward Mission Leaders and Bishop

8 Months in the mission field!!

This week has definitely been a fun one. 

Earlier in the week, we went to look for a less-active member here in the city, the majority of the people live in apartment buildings but there are some that live in little homes that are within an alley kind of thing. Well, we entered one of those and in the second house on our left has this dog. A feisty little thing. It started barking at us as we passed. Usually we can ignore them and they don't do anything but this little pooch only wanted one thing....TO EAT ME! It ran after us after we passed it and tried to bite me but only got my skirt. My companion was able to scare it away but it continued to try to bite us until it's owner called it from the bathroom that was outside and got a hold of it. We continued looking for the less-active member who actually doesn't live there. We were then leaving when the vicious little thing got away from it's owner and began to chase us down again. That was when we full out sprinted out of the isle yelling, "Run! Run!" and ran down the street. Although it was just a little ankle-biter of a dog, I now officially have a "being chased by a dog in the mission" story.

Also this week, Reyna told us that she didn't want us to visit her anymore. We found her while looking for an old investigator and she invited us right into her home and received our message with such enthusiasm and love that we couldn't help but love her. However, due to how her entire family, who is very VERY Catholic btw, has been giving her a very rough time and the fact that she's listening to us cause her daughter's 8th b-day party to turn into an interrogation, she decided that it was better that we just stopped coming. My companion was super sad about it. I just thought, "Well, at least we know where she lives and she now has a Book of Mormon. It just must not be her time." 

Later in the day we were looking for a reference that we had been given earlier that day and we couldn't find the street. I crossed the street and when I looked around for my companion she had gone to ask a woman who was trying to enter her house for help. The woman answered her and when my companion looked back at me, I start mouthing, "Contact her. Contact her!" She shook her head no and crossed the street towards me. "Why didn't you contact her?" I asked, and she said that the woman was very angry and that she didn't want to contact someone who was very angry. I just shook my head and smiled. As we started walking away, the lady walked out of her house again and asked us what was the address we were looking for again. We went back and began to talk to her. We both knew that we now had to contact her because she had been put into our lives twice in 5 minutes now. We talked to her and she invited us into her house...but just for 5 minutes......we stayed an hour. =) Her sister in law is LDS and has shared a little bit of the Gospel with her. She was very interested and listened intently as we talked about the Restoration (Preach My Gospel, chapter 3 for those who want to look it up ;)  ). We couldn't make an appointment because she couldn't give us a day when she's free but we have a lot of hope for this woman. =)

We had another couple invite us into their house after we contacted them when we were searching for the same address and needed to ask for directions. They were very interesting because they work a lot with AA (Alcoholics Anonymous) and have a activity every month for the members of the group. We tried to share a little bit of the gospel with them but we couldn't because all they could talk about was their group and invited us at least 10 times to join. We're pretty sure they're convinced that we both have a deep dark problem or addiction to something.  However, we have an appointment with them in two weeks so we'll see how that goes. =) 

On Thursday we had to stay home because we were both sick and Hermana Christensen said that we should "lay low" for the day. So we did our weekly planning and then rested. The night before, my companion captured a big black spider in a water bottle she swore wanted to kill her. We kept it in the bottle until we realized it was going to die. We then decided to set it free. So we left our apartment, still in our pajamas, to set the poor thing free in a bush in front of our apartment building. The neighbor who lived next to the person who owned the bush watched us carefully as she was trying to open her gate. I told her we were setting free a spider that we had captured in our house. She told us to kill it and although it took us a few minutes to decide if we should kill it or let it be, we of course let it be. Well, she was not very happy with us and lectured us very angrily for the next 10 minutes about how rude it was that we were putting spiders in other people's gardens..... and then something about the trash that people would leave in the street. We just stood there in the middle of the street, in our pajamas, with blank stares, thinking only about getting back into the house and away from this crazy lady. We finally got away and back into the house. It was then that the Gas Man came to give us gas for our boiler...so that we can shower. He complained about having to carry the gas tank up our apartment building and then got upset when we didn't know which gas tank was ours that was on top of the roof. We figured it all out and actually ended giving gas to our neighbors who live above us. When we finally got back to the house, we began to laugh. We had successfully completed two acts of kindness, made two people angry, and all of that in less than two hours! Wow, what a day. =)

I love you all so much! thank you so much for all of your love, support, and prayers! Have a wonderful week!

About the Atonement

This week was probably the hardest week I've had here in this area and possibly in my mission. 

This week, with everything that did and didn't happen, I began to feel my Savior's love more strongly than before.  I asked for my Heavenly Father to help me feel His love and to know where I stood with Him as His daughter and as a missionary. On Friday, my companion and I were studying the First 12 Weeks and it was going pretty well as we looked up and read scriptures about the Holy Ghost, why He's important for the work we do, what we need to do in order to have Him with us, what He does for us and our investigators. I have learned that as a missionary, I can receive revelation to help members, investigators, and people I meet in the street as it is necessary. Also, as a trainer, I can receive revelation to help my companion, to help her grow and pass through difficult times in the beginning of her mission. After reading a particular scripture in D&C 84:88 "And whoso receiveth you, there I will be also, for I will go before your face. I will be on your right hand and on your left, and my Spirit shall be in your hearts, and mine angels round about you, to bear you up." I felt impressed to tell something to my companion. I took a moment to focus myself on the Spirit that was entering my heart and to listen very closely to what our Heavenly Father wanted my companion to hear. I told her, "Hermana, I want to remind you of something. You have a Heavenly Father and He loves you. We may not be perfect.  We may not always make the best decisions. However, He loves us anyway and always. He understands, He knows you perfectly and is waiting patiently to help you become the best missionary, the best friend, the best daughter, and the best person that He knows you can be." As I testified this to my companion, the Spirit testified the exact same thing to me. As President Monson said, "God’s love is there for you whether or not you feel you deserve love. It is simply always there." 

I testify that God loves us. We are His children and He is always waiting patiently to help pick us back up when we fall and show us who we can really be. He loves you. Each of you. He listens to and answers your prayers and is constantly trying to help you become the best that you can be.