The time the APs kidnapped the Cooke Family!

  We use hangers to keep our lamp on!

Last Tuesday was a good day because we got to Skype with Jules. He is a recent convert who lives in Madagascar... I still don't know how we got lucky to teach him! He is deaf and is preparing now to go to the temple. He makes me so happy because he is happy all the time. He is very patient with us when we don't understand each other and strives to understand us. He is so great! Later we reached the top rejection number in an hour. We got up to 21 "nos", but we got 20 "yes" to balance it out! I never remembered being told "no" so much in a row before! I think this means we need to switch up our tactic for contacting people! Haha

On Wednesday we saw Ann, who is deaf and blind! She was a tad mad at me because she didn't know we were coming, but let us stay anyways. She told us to call next time, but here's the thing.... We did call her! She didn't answer and never returned our call after we left a voice message. Before we left I gave our number by singing it in her hand... Guess what!?!?! She called today and set up an appointment for tomorrow! Yay! Funny thing! Ann kept calling Sister Kucharek, Sister Ram. Sister Kucharek kept trying to correct her, but she would forget. Ann never met Sister Ram yet, so it's funny that she would already mix her up with Sister Ram! After a while,she finally understood that Sister Kucharek wasn't Sister Ram!

  Elisa with some of her siblings.
Elisa is the one holding the doll.

 

On Christmas Eve we went up to Fredrick to be with Elisa and her family! We were quite early, so we went out to eat at Panarea Bread for dinner! Afterwards, we still had time to kill so Sister Kucharek and I shared our life stories to get to know each other more. That was super fun to do since I didn't know a whole lot about her before. Finally it was time to head over to Elisa's house. It was so much fun! We read Luke 2 out loud as they acted it out. I got to even be the angle who spoke to the Shepherds! All the kids had a fun time with that! Then the kids had a fun time entertaining us by one person siting in a chair with a jacket over them. Another kid would go behind them and put their arms trough the jacket. The person in the chair would tell a story while the other person would move their hands around.  It was quite funny! They even did the same thing with their legs.

Sister Kucharek and me visiting with Sister Cosper

Christmas was such a blast and busy day! We woke up at the regular time of 6:30 so that we could open our presents before we headed out to the visitor center. At the visitor center the whole Cooke Family share their testimonies. Only one of the 4 kids wasn't not there because he wanted to spend Christmas at their "real" home in SLC. Then the APs presented one of the 3 gifts to the Cookes. It was a Washington DC baseball tee that had all of our names signed on it. The 2nd gift was
still being hold by UPS, so we will be informed later what it is. Now... The 3rd gift was already given, but the APs showed a video of it! The APs blindfolded the Cooke Family to take them to their
apartment for a fancy dinner. Then they blindfolded them again to drive them to the Kennedy Center to see Handle's Messiah. Sister Cooke told us later that day the APs had way too much fun driving them one place to another. They were taking detours to go on gravel roads or would stop the car to switch seats and so on! The video was very funny!

Then we watched our movie! There was a rumor going around that we might get to watch the new Star Wars movie (I didn't believe that!). So, the APs pulled a prank and had the movie start exactly like the new Star Wars movie. It was of course a joke. When we looked back we saw one Elder crying! Haha. I think all the sisters laughed and the Elders gave out a huge groan! Haha

The movie we saw was Inside out. I love it so much! I'm looking forward to seeing that again with subtitles so I can catch all the quick one-liners! After the movie we went to the Stake Center for lunch and the talent show! All the ASL missionaries did a skit together. The ASL sisters signed "The First Noel" sung by Pentonix and the Elders signed a few verses in Luke 2. At the end we held up signs in 12 languages that say Christmas on it. Then at the end we flipped over the signs and it read #A Savior Is Born. We couldn't hear the music very well, so it was hard to sign it together! But it was a lot of fun to put it together!

Then I got to Skype with my family! That was a lot of fun!!! It was nice to see them for a bit. Afterwards we headed off to the VC. All the sisters got to sing in a concert together. I got to do both
performances because me and Sister Ellsworth signed "Joy to the World" together. As you can see... Our Christmas was jam packed! I was glad we were kept busy and happy!

On Saturday we had a little miracle. I was praying that Sister Kucharek would get to upper box someone (that's were we get people's info so that missionaries can meet with them). I didn't care if I got one, but I wanted Sister Kucharek to get one. Well... At 9:45 she got one!!! The visitor center closed at 10! Then on Sunday she got 3 upper boxes!!! It was so neat and exciting to see that happen for her!

This morning we helped Gloree with organizing her basement! She is not a member, but is married to a member. She comes to ASL class every week and I love her so much! She even gave us scarfs for a Christmas Present! She's a sweetheart!

This week will be my last VC shift! Crazy!!! I hope I will adjust going back to my regular schedule again! Well... I love you all! I hope you have a fantastic week!

Happy New Years!

Sister Parker

The time when one of the Rockville Sisters pulled a prank on us!

Monday was a full day of being together as roommates before Sister Cosper and Sister Sundwall had to leave us. We went out to Walmart and I bought a broken watch :(. I'm going back today to get a new one! Then we went out to eat at Subway and sent Christmas gifts off to our families. That night was full of helping Sister Cosper pack and clean up the apartment for cleaning checks the next day!

Wednesday was transfers.... A sad and happy day. I said good bye to my trainer Sister Whiteford! I can't believe she is home right now! I'm glad I could say one last good bye before she left. I also had to say good bye to Sister Cosper... She is now in the ASL branch. Some crazy things went on but we pretty much guessed who was going to be with who. The biggest surprise was Sister Carter (who is one of the ASL sisters) is now in the VC speaking English. But get this... She is in the Rockville Ward! The same Ward I'm serving in! That means we have 3 sets of ASL missionaries, so now 1/3 of the missionaries in RV know ASL! (side note: the Ward now has 9 missionaries! The APs are in a trio!)

Soooooo drummmmm rooooollllll...... My new companion is Sister Kucharek! She is from all over because her dad is in the Air Force. Her family is currently living in Springville, UT. Her dad is working at
the ROTC and she helps do the uniforms for the cadets. She said she might remember my friend Lauren who did ROTC for one semester! She is the oldest of 6. Do you know what's cool?  Sister Cosper and Sister Kucharek were MTC companions! They both have similar personalities, so that has been fun!

After transfer meeting Sister McAuthur and Sistef Everton (they are in the Rockville Ward) pulled me a side to get Sister Cosper because they had a letter for us. They forgot it at home, but wanted to tell us what it said. Once I got Sister Cosper to come they said, "The letter about the security camera was us!" We couldn't believe it! Remember last week when I found a graham cracker with the note to pick up my trash??? Well... They were the ones that did that! Haha. We now need to get back at them for doing that!

On Friday we finally got our new car! Our old one..... Had lots of problems! Such as: tail lights that would take turns turning on and off, sometimes it would have a hard time starting, needed an oil change, back tires needed to be replaced, wind shield wipers would streak and make chirping noises, etc. We are so glad we finally got a new car before the snow hits!

Cool story! We lost Sister Kucharek's USB that had over 3,000 songs on it. We were praying hard that we would find it again. When Sister Ram and Cosper came over to have a little meeting about their area, (Sister Kucharek had their area before this transfer) Sister Ram suggested to call the mall to see if it was there. Lo and Behold!....It was at Panda Express where we ate after transfers on Wed! We were so happy to have that back with our new car!

On Friday night we went to a cookie exchange Party! It was at Molly Grasso's house. She was baptized a year ago and she is such an amazing person! She invited a lot of ladies to come that were both members and non members. She allowed sisters to share a spiritual thought with the group before the cookie exchange began. Part of the spiritual thought was to play "A Savior is Born" and "Imagine  a world without the Savior". It was the perfect way to start the party right! We then sang a few Christmas hymns. Wow! That was so powerful and left a sweet feeling in my heart! We all sounded so beautiful! Then the cookie exchange happened! All the ladies brought one kind of cookie and everyone grabbed a platter to grab other people's cookies. I thought that this was a fun way to exchange goodies. We took a few cookies for ourselves to eat on the road!

On Saturday I meet Jules! He lives in Madagascar and the other ASL sisters have been Skyping him every week. He has been learning ASL since he created his own sign language to communicate. (I wonder if Madagascar has their own sign Lagrange???) Anyways, he is super super nice and sweet! He was so cute trying to remember the Christmas songs we taught him. It's going to be a lot of fun seeing him every week.

I also met Susanna Neal's aunt and uncle at the visitor center on Saturday! I love it when I meet people out here that are related to people back home! It's fun to be able to make a connection with people!

Rockville got a new  bishopric on Sunday! Wow! The sacrament meeting was so so so good! The spirit was so powerful! Our bishop is now Bishop Alfandre. He is such a good man. We worked with him a few times
because he was Charo's home teacher. He has been a huge help for Charo. He gave a fantastic talk/about the Motel 6 motto, "We will always leave a light on for you". He talked about how he wants that to be his motto as a bishop. When President Baird got back up to speak he told Bishop Alfandre, "You might like Motel 6, but you have officially checked into Hotel California. You think you can leave, but you can never leave!" Or however that song goes! We all were laughing so hard!

Today has been a nice relaxing day. We are getting a song together for the talent show at the mission Christmas party! We finally decided to sign "The First Noel" by Pentatonix. You should look it up! At the end of the song we are planning to hold up signs that say Christmas in different languages. I'm pretty excited for it!

Can anyone believe it's Christmas this week?!?!? Cuz I can't! Time has just flown on by! I hope everyone enjoys their Christmas!

Much love,

Sister Parker

The time a guy gave me a kiss on my cheek and hugged me!

Alright....

Well I'll start off with the sad news first, then we can move on to the happy and funny stories! We got the call last Saturday night about transfers. We learned that.... I'm staying (yay!), but Sister Cosper is leaving :( I have no idea who my new companion will be because most of the ASL sisters are leaving! I'm going to miss Sister Cosper so much!  The good news though is that I am still doing ASL!

Our early Christmas opening Sister Capson's mom presents to us since both Sister Sundwall and Sister Cosper are leaving. It was nice to have a day to be together before 1/2 of us leave!

On Tuesday night us roommates were laughing really hard and having a good time. At one point, Sister Cosper scared Sister Sundwall. Right when she screamed there was a loud knock at the door. (Keep in mind this is about 10:00 at night). We all freaked out and ran into our roommates' room and kept yelling, "I don't want to answer it!" Sister Sundwall was brave one and answered the door. The person left, so we all went to bed in peace. The next morning we found this lovely note at our door:

"Delivery for Mrs. Parker,

Don't leave your trash in the ground. We saw you in the security camera.

Sincerely...."

Then there was a graham cracker with it.

Apparently on Monday night when I threw away my gingerbread house, one piece fell off. I thought it was obnoxious that they kept it for a whole day just to give it back to me. Kinda weird! Haha!

On Wednesday night we helped at the visitor center. It was so much fun! It was probably the best night so far! I was able to refer a lady to meet with the missionaries! She also referred her mom too! She actually met with missionaries before, but would like missionaries to visit with her again! Then I met a man who is actually going to move to Beaverton! It was amazing because he said he only talked to me and none other missionaries! He was super nice and I was so touched to meet him! It will be neat if he ends up being in my Home Ward!

This is Sister Hill! She is so awesome! I love her so much!

On Thursday we met Ann. She met with the previous ASL sisters, but we hadn't been able to get in contact with her. We finally emailed her and she was so excited to have us come over to help her out. You see.... Ann is deaf and blind. She is the cutest lady ever!!! When she found out I could knit, she handed her knitting to me so that I could fix a dropped stitch. I tried, but I forgotten how. Anyways... at one point I followed her and Sister Cosper upstairs to help decorate outside for about 20 min. She must have not known that I came up because she asked Sister Cosper if I was still knitting away down stairs! Once downstairs she signs to a empty chair (where I was sitting) "Do you want to keep knitting? Be my guest!" My heart just melted! I love her so much!

On Friday we had exchanges. For the member meal we got to sit on the ground on pillows. The table was super low so we could be chest high to it. It was fun eating on the floor. I might consider doing that when I settle in my own home! Afterwards we went contacting. There were some sketchy people, but it was fun! One of them was Hispanic. He came out of the store and came up to me and asked, "I know you don't I?" The other sisters were too busy talking with a member form their Ward. I told him, "No, I don't know you" he repeated the question and tried to hit on me and kiss me on the cheek. I pulled back and said, "Sorry, I don't do that!  He was like "Come on!" And tries again. I let him kiss me on the cheek, trying to touch him as less as I could. One of the sisters saw what happened and came to my rescue! He luckily left us alone after we gave him a side hug!

This week has been nice and busy! I'm excited to see what this week brings!

I love you all  and Happy Holidays!

Sister Parker

 It has been so warm here!!, it has been in the 60s this past
weekend! It's so crazy how warm it is.... I like it though!

The time we ran into a man that absolute LOVES Mormons!

Hello everyone!

The Christmas season has officially begun! Lots of fun and amazing things has happened this week! Let's see how much I can write before I run out of time!

On Wednesday we got 22 contacts! This is the highest yet! We felt so good to finally hit our goal of 20 contacts. The "Elder Ballard Challenge" is 20 contacts everyday. What I can say is... It's definitely  a challenge! On of our contacts that day made my whole week! We just got off a train to transfer to another one. He called out to us and asked, Mormons???" We said Yes!"
Him: Steve Young?
Us: YES!
Him: The Marriot's?
Us: YEAH
Him: Mitt Romney?
Us: YES!
Then he goes on for about 30 min about how he LOVES Mormons! He isn't religious himself, but he just adores Mormons. He said it's not what we say, but what we DO that sticks out to him. I just couldn't pass up the opportunity and so I asked him if he would like to learn more from the missionaries. He accepted!!! The other sisters missionaries are now are going to try to teach him since he doesn't live in our area. I'm so excited! Oh one funny thing... When I asked if he would like to learn more, he said "Yes, as long as you don't tell me I'm going to burn in Hell!" We said we would for sure won't tell him that! Haha

That night we got to work at the Visitor Center (VC). It was so much fun! I got to help make hot coco in the kitchen for the guests. Before the event started, I got to chat with Sister Whiteford and my 3 roommates from Gaithersburg! That was really fun and nice to catch up with them! I can't believe Sister Whiteford is going home in a week and a half! Where has the time gone!?!

On Thursday we got to teach sweet little Elisa! She is a bundle of joy and energy! We taught her the plan of Salvation and she didn't hold still for one sec! It was so sweet and rewarding when we asked her to put back the plan salvation puzzle. She was able to put everything back in its place and only needed one correction! She is so smart! I love getting to see her once a week!

On Friday we got to Skype with the grand nice of Bruce R. McConkie. She is learning ASL and is hoping to go on an ASL mission in a couple of years! She is so awesome! We ran into her at stake conference and President Cooke gave us permission to reach out to her!

Today was so much fun! We had a zone activity! We had crepes, white elephant gift exchange, and gingerbread house competition! Sister Cosper's house got tied for first! Her's was so amazing! I'll . Her's is entitled "There is no room in the inn... Or the stable". It amazed me that her's held together for a long time! Mine was nice and simple!

Afterwards Sister Cosper and I had a fun time food shopping. When we got home our roommates were gone. But right in front of us in the living room... There was a cute little Christmas tree with presents! One of our roommate's Mom gave each one of us presents for Christmas! Sister Cosper and I were so touched and happy we have a little Christmas tree. It feels like Christmas now in our apartment!

Well... I hope you all enjoy the holidays! I love you all so much!

Hugs!

Sister Parker!

My scariest contacting experience ever!

Hello everyone!

How was every ones Thanksgiving? Mine was a lot of fun! We got to go to a members' home and I got to watch 2 year old twins play. It was adorable. We also met a lady that used to live in the Rockville Ward before the Ward boundaries changed last year. It was really fun to hear about her mission. She was a certified nurse before her mission and worked a year after college. She was worried that if she went on a mission, she would lose her skills. Well, Heavenly Father answered her prayers in a BIG way! She got called to be a mission nurse in Uruguay. She was responsible for answering calls from missionaries that had any health problems. She also went to the doctors with the missionaries to make sure they got the proper treatment. It was so fascinating! I
never heard that kind of mission call before. Thanksgiving was a very relaxing day for me since we couldn't proselyte. To be honest... I didn't know what to do with myself! Haha. But, once we went over for dinner, the day got so much better!

Last Monday we went to the Smithsonian zoo and it was FREE! It was so nice and relaxing to see all the animals. It was so much fun! I loved the elephants and the lions! The monkeys are also my favorite too! I would love to go again when it gets warmer!


On Wednesday Sister Cosper and I gave our very first training! We had to teach about the importance of questions in a lesson for missionaries who arrived here within the last 12 weeks. Our role play was so much fun! We put down really funny, but believable, concerns on the paper. They couldn't show anyone their concerns and the other two people in the group were the missionaries and they had to ask questions to find out what the concerns was and to resolve it. Some of the concerns were:

I can't go to church because I have to feed my cat 3 times a day. At 9, 11, and 1.

I don't want to be baptized because I'm afraid of water


That night we had an amazing experience! We were on our way to talk with people at the metro. On our way there, we ran into a man that we contacted about 2 months ago. He luckily didn't seem to remember us because he wasn't all too interested last time. But, this time he listened to us and he was really nice. We ended up giving him a Book of Mormon and got his contact info! The next task is to find a Farsi Book of Mormon! This man can read Farsi and would love to practice by reading the Book of Mormon! I sure hope the mission office can get one for us!


On Saturday we had an interesting and scary contacting experience! We were waiting for our train to come to get back home. We sat on the bench and a lady comes walking by. We made good eye contact so we said, "Hi, how are you?" She looked like she didn't understand us, so we repeated, "Hi, how are you?" She then says in a uptight tone, "Do I know you?" We said, "No" Then she went off, "I'm sick of you Mormons acting all cute. Stop putting your mouths in other people's business. Just shut up!" We then stammered, "Ok... That's fine. Have a good day." She went off again while walking away, "JUST SHUT UP! IF YOU DON'T, YOU WILL BE SMACKED! JUST SHUT UP,!" We were shocked about this lady's reaction to us. All we said was, "How are you?" Haha. We talked about it later to de-stress and laugh about it.

Overall this week has been crazy with Thanksgiving and trying to see everyone. It has been a fun week! I'm looking foreword for this week because I get to help in the visitor center 3 times a week!!! We call it the Festival of Lights. The whole temple grounds and visitor center is decorated in Christmas Lights. Inside we have a Crèche room and free concerts every night! It will be a TON of fun! Ready or not..... Here comes the holiday season!

Love you all and happy holidays!

Sister Parker

The time we got to see President Nelson ALL weekend long!

We had busy, fun, service, and spiritual filled week!

First off... I have been grounded from the keys! I have lost the keys twice! The first time wasn't my fault! It was a few weeks ago. I looked down and the keys were literally missing! We never found them. So we made a copy of them. Well... This week I dropped them.... Down the crack to get on the elevator to be exact. So.... The keys are now at the bottom of the elevator shaft! It turns out we can't get them back until the elevator guy comes... And that's when he has to come to fix the elevator.  The front desk ladies were so kind to allow us to get another copy of the keys. Lucky Sister Cosper loves driving, so I won't need to touch the keys until she decides she doesn't want to drive.

On Monday we had a sweet experience to do some service. We were on our way out of the grocery store when Sister Cosper spotted a lady in the self checkout line with a cart FULL of food. Sites Cosper asked if she could help her and she said yes. Sister Cosper is pro at bagging since she worked at a grocery store before her mission.Since bagging was a one person job, I decided to talk with an old lady who was sitting on the bench. I found out that her daughter-in-law was the one buying her food. Right away I could tell she was from another country because of her accent. It was funny and cute because she was talking with me in English, then she suddenly switched over to Spanish. It probably took me 3 min to realize she wasn't speaking English anymore. I pretty much pretended I knew what she was talking about because she was so cute!

So we have this contacting challenge until January. We have been working hard to contact more people every day. It has been a great experience riding the metro more and getting to know people in a short amount of time. Once we got a high score of 11 in a day and on another day contacted 8 people within an hour! We are getting better at it and I'm excited to get more people contacted this week than last! Every week we will try to raise our numbers to be higher and higher!

We have this new deaf girl who we are teaching. She is turning 8 next year. She is super sweet and energetic! We played apples to apples and took breaks to teach her the first lesson. Her mom wants us to teach her all the lessons so that she can fully understand what we believe before she gets baptized. I loved being at their house and feeling this little girl's energy and excitement about life.

On Wednesday was our very first time teaching the ASL class all by ourselves. We and the whole class had a super fun time! I love it so much! I'm so proud of our class members! I'm excited for next week to teach them again. I'm sad because we are taking it off this week because of thanksgiving. But, everyone seems excited about us teaching. Sister Hill has done AMAZING job and we hope to match up to how well Sister Hill has taught.

Thursday night we got to help out at an interfaith concert. We had 5 different religions (including the LDS choir) and a high school choir group. My job was to escort the high school choir in. The other sisters had a flag to carry on that corresponds with the religious group. The high school choir didn't have a flag, so I had the easy job to just walk in when it was their turn to come into the auditorium. Being around the high school choir for a brief time made me realize how much I miss choir! It was a fun evening!

The next day we got asked to come help the Salvation Army with Thanksgiving dinner preparation. The dinner was for people in need. That was so much fun! We prepped apple pies, mash potatoes, and smashed boxes! It was a ton of fun! There were a lot of missionaries there that helped out. I just love service!

So last weekend was stake conference and Friday night was the 75th anniversary celebration of the Washington DC stake organization. President Nelson from the 12 apostles came with Elder Hallstrom to come to all 3 meetings. It turns out President Nelson came to the 50th anniversary too! He used to live in the DC stake, so he was able to name people he knew in the audience and those who had passed on. It was an unique experience! Sister Cosper got to shake his hand on Friday and he shook my hand after the Sunday Meeting. He said, "Thanks dear". He was referring to me interpreting for our deaf members. I only did some of the songs and the closing prayer. Sister Cosper did the rest with 2 other interpreters. Sister Cosper even got to interpret for President Nelson too!

Stake Conference was just amazing! There was such a good spirit there. Oh! And the main reason for stake conference was that the DC stake presidency was getting reorganized. Bishop Baird is now the new stake
president! He is such an amazing man and I will miss him being the bishop of the Rockkville Ward! He will do fantastic in that calling!

Well... I ran out of time again! I hope you all are doing great!

Happy Thanksgiving!

Sister Parker

The time I had a frostbite scare!

Although I want to make you hang on to your seats about the frostbite scare and talk about the other parts of my week... I figured I should be nice and share this story first!


On Saturday Sister Cosper and I did metro contacting for a couple of hours. It was windy and SO COLD!!! It was about 30 degrees, so for sure not the coldest it can be. When we finally got back to our apartment and I took off my shoes, I looked down to see my big toe and the toe next to it was really WHITE! I NEVER seen my toes be that white. (I wished I taken a pic... Sorry! I was a tad freaking out at the moment!) so my roommate Sister Sundwall ordered me to dip my feet in cold water and slowly turn up the heat. I did that for a few min. Then I left my toes out of  the water and looked down to see that my toes was a grayish purple color. I called the sisters from the other room to get a second opinion. They got more freaked out and called the mission Doctor. He told us to warm up a towel for 5 min in the microwave. Sister Cosper must have forgotten he said a WET towel and not a dry one. So I got out the rag and did that.... I was reluctant at first because that didn't make any sense! But Sister Sundwall convinced me that I needed too. So I warmed up the towel.... 3 min in I figured I need to check the towel. When I open the microwave.... Smoke came out and even I could smell the smoke! Yes.... The towel caught on fire. Luckily it only had embers. While I was patting towel down and ran it through water, Sister Sundwall went out on the balcony to air out the apartment. She must have gotten excited and the smell got to
her..... Because she threw up! After that things finally calmed down my feet turned back to normal and we had a good laugh! 

So exciting news!!! We will start teaching a deaf girl who is going to be 8 soon! She doesn't have a full understanding about church, so we are going to teach her! She goes to a Ward in the Baltimore mission. We got to meet her last Friday and she has some sass!!! Haha. It will be a lot of fun!

At Why I Believe one of the ladies got up to bear her testimony and she is a part of the Rockville Ward. She did so great! I love her so much, she as such a powerful testimony. Afterwards I got to say good bye to Mark. He is a deaf convert and is leaving for his mission this week to San Diego!!! I'm so excited for him.

This week has been pretty good. We have this challenge to try to talk to 20 people a day! That will be hard.... But we can do it!!! Hopefully this will help us find more people to teach!

Today we went to see the White House with some the ASL sisters. It
was fun! We also checked out the White House visitor center for a
little bit. I want to go back and read everything there. It was really
neat!

I love you all! Hope you are doing well!!

Love,

Sister Parker

P.S Just in case you wanted a taste of my companion and roommates personalities... 

So a few weeks back I was leaning back in my chair..... I know not a
good idea. I of course leaned way too far and I fell! I heard a crack of the chair leg. I stand up and say , "I'm ok! I'm ok! I'm so sorry!"

Sister Sundwall: oh my goodness! are you ok?!?!?!
Sister Cosper: she just laughed her head off. And then said, "oh
ha.... Are you ok???"
Sister Capson: you broke the chair.... Haha

Sister Cosper, Carter and I taking a selfie!

Say what?!?!? Another transfer with Sister Cosper??? Yes please!

Yep! We have another transfer this week and we got the call that we are both staying together! We are soooooo happy and relived. We were worried that one of us was gonna leave. We got some good things going from last week to this week!  I am just so happy that Sister Cosper and I get to continue together for another 5 weeks. (It's a week shorter because the real transfer would have been on the 23rd of Dec and SLC doesn't fly anyone on that day. So this transfer is 5 weeks and the next one will be 7!) I'm counting my blessings I get to stay and still do ASL! Yay!

Ok, so we had a pretty good week. I think both Sister Cosper and I just wanted to hurry the week along so that we would know what will happen with transfers. It was hard when days were sooo long, but we finally made it to Saturday!

On Tuesday we had a special women's conference with Sister Cooke and the two sister training leaders. It was so good! Sister Cooke pulled apart President Nelson's talk about why women are needed in the church. Sister Cooke had us pay attention to whenever he says we need women, the men need women, and also when the church need women. It was quite fascinating to listen to this talk again with a new perspective.

On Wednesday we visited Jackie. Her boyfriend actually hung around this time. He usually hides in another room when we come over. It was great to see him and build his trust with us. He said he will join with us from now on! Yay! Although he said he was baptist and there is nothing we can do about it, I'm just glad he came to sit in to the the lesson. Haha. Then after the lesson Jackie helped me back up the car! This is her second time doing it! She is so cute. She pretends to be a police officer directing traffic!

On Thursday we finally got to meet Gloree and her husband David. She is not a member and David is. Gloree comes to the ASL class every week and she is the sweetest old lady ever! We have been meaning to set an appointment with her and we finally did! The most amazing thing we learned about Gloree is that she has been to all 7 continents. Yes... Even Antarctica! We asked her how that was and she said,"Very beautiful! Lots of ice and penguins!" Haha. She has also lived in Pakistan for 2 years. As you can image, her front room was FILLED with things all around the world! We are looking forward to going back to see them again.

On Friday we met with Charo. So there is something you should know about her she is VERY intoned with the Holy Ghost! Every time we show up she is either there to answer the locked apartment building door or her daughter comes. Well... this time there was a cray man right in front of the building. He was mumbling to himself and he didn't seem to be too dangerous. But.. I wanted to get inside ASAP. Charo doesn't have a working phone so the Holy Ghost does it for her. Well lo and
behold, there was her daughter coming right down the stairs to come get us! It is so crazy!!!

Earlier that day we had an appointment with S's friend but it fell through😟. We had Sister Hill in the car going to her house, but she cancelled last min. Hopefully this week will be better and get an appointment with her! Pray that this appointment will keep!

Ok to finish off, we had two miracles/ tender mercies. The first one was on Friday night. We were coming home from the day's work. We got on the elevator with another lady. She immediately realized we were from the church. She asked if we just went to church and we said no. We explained what we do and she said that she would love to talk with us! She said she has some questions and feels like we could answer them!!! So we got her name and number! This all happened in 30 sec! We then we gave the info to our roommates because our apartment is in their area! It felt so good to help give them a potential investigator!

The second one happened the following day! We were coming back from metro contacting when a man came our way. We said "hi! How are you?" Then he stopped completely and turned towards us!!! That RARELY happens and when it does you know you got a person who wants to listen!!!! He said that his friend is Mormon and he would like a "Jesus Bible". We handed him one and invited him to Why I Believe next Sunday. He accepted!!! He even said he is interested in learning more about our church! We still need to contact him and figure out where he lives. But.... We just MIGHT have another investigator. If not that's ok! I'm so glad I met him!

Well, I hope you all are doing great! I love you! Have a good week for me.

Love,

Sister Parker

We got a deaf investigator!!!

This week has been a good week!

On Monday we had our zone activity and it was so much fun! We were able to dress up so I wore my thing 2 shirt. We played a game where you tie a balloon around your ankle and you try to pop other people's balloons. It was so funny! Afterwards Sister Cosper had a eating contest with Elder Fisher, our zone leader. It's called bubble soup. It's basically little black and white squishy balls. It was really funny, but a tad gross. They chugged it down!

On Tuesday after our meetings we went to the family history center for Sister Cosper to find a name for the baptismal trip the next day. We found one name for her!!! I was so excited I yelled... Haha. Sister Cosper was like "Shhhhhh... You don't need to be so loud!" Then we had some fun time contacting people before dinner. One man reminded us exactly like the male version of Rose. He said he is spiritual, but not religious. It's so interesting how in general conference it talked over and over again how important church is. We have ran into a lot of people who said they don't believe in organized region because it creates separation. It's sad to me that people think this way, but comforting that the general authorities know what they are talking about!

On Wednesday was our baptismal trip as us sisters! It was really nice! I got to do 4 family family names. We went on exchanges afterwards and I got to spend night in my old apartment in Gaithersburg! That was really fun! Sister Whiteford still lives there and so we got to hang out that night. She cracks me up. My favorite moment that day was at our last door. The lady answers and said in a frustrated tone, "I am in a hurry!" And so I turned around and headed for the door. She followed us out, so I held the door for her. She said in a sincere voice, "I'm sorry". That was so touching to me that I could do that small thing and left a better impression on her.

Thursday..... Was my tired day! We had an amazing visit with Sister Hill. We talked about what we could do to help the work in the deaf group and ASL class to be better. We are going to teach the ASL class in a few more weeks until Feb! Sister Hill has been so stressed and over worked, she needs a break. We are both VERY excited to help out. Sister Hill does so much! Then we finally got our Video Phone set up in our apartment. We have been enjoying it very much!

Friday was the BEST day of our week! S is one of our deaf members in the Rockville Ward. She has been wanting us to meet her friend Char, but our appointments kept falling through! But, on Friday we finally got to meet her! S was able to even come with us too! Our lesson went SO WELL! We taught her the first lesson of the Restoration. She was so excited to read the Book of Mormon and to meet us next week to learn about the Plan of Salvation! Sister Cosper and I love her so much. She was so nice. That night we had the Ward trunk or treat. Sister Cosper and I got to pass out suckers to the kids. That was a lot of fun. Randy Finder was next to us (he and his wife is the ones with autism and they showed us out to the door when we tried to share a spiritual thought). He hid in his trunk and passed out candy. A lot of the kids were skeptical about this and we just had to laugh!

Saturday was an interesting day! One set of the ASL sisters needed our help to teach a single deaf man up in Frederick. It's an hour drive away. We had a pretty good visit with him... I guess. Haha. He told us from the start that he didn't see the reason to listen to general conference because he felt like they were repetitive. We still shared the conference talk, "faith by choice, not chance". I got bold and told him that if he listened to general conference, his faith would increased. He didn't like that very much. Then Sister Cosper said that God requires us to keep all of his commandments. In reply he told us that he has been apart of the church for 30 years and he knows how to build his own faith. He is just one of those people who think that he can pick and choose what commanders to be obedient to. Oh well.

Today we got to tour around the Kennedy Center.. That was so fun and neat to see!!! That is one place that I would love to see again! 

 

Well, there is more I want to say... but as always I am running out of time! Hope all is well!

Sister Parker

The difference between deaf and hearing people

First off... Chill out to this song as you read about my week! Also... take notice of my fabulous improv driving and swag signing with Sister Cosper :)

 

Last week I ran out of time to talk about Why I Believe. It was so awesome!We had a lady, M, who planed to come so I had to wait for her while Sister Cosper went down to go interpret for the event. It was so crazy because while I was waiting for M, another lady, Rose, came and we totally didn't expect her to come! We met Rose on Labor Day weekend and we NEVER got a hold of her until earlier this week. We were going down the elevator to go to an appointment and the elevator stooped. Then walks in Rose!!! We had a good chat with her. She even read from the Book of Mormon and enjoyed it. When we invited her to come to Why I Believe, she said she would think about it because she was coming home from NY that day. I was so flustered and excited to see her walk in the Visitor center! haha! I walked Rose down the auditorium to save our seats. Luckily M was right on the stairs heading towards me when I went to go wait for her in the front. Once I got them seated... I realized they needed someone to conduct the music. (The person who was going to it was waiting for their recent convert who giving their testimony) So, I made the split decision to hop up there to do it myself. We were sitting in the middle of the row and I had to climb over people to get up to the front to conduct the music! It was pretty funny!

I'll share one funny story from Why I Believe about Pete and Pete's older brother. Pete has down syndrome and is in his late 20s. When he was 12 he wanted to pass the sacrament, but he wasn't baptized yet. (I guess they assumed since he had down syndrome they figured he wasn't held accountable to be baptized). Because of this, he needed to be baptized before he could pass the sacrament. His older brother was the one that baptized him. After the ordinance was done, Pete went up the stairs to get changed. But when the bishop called out to unplug the drain, Pete decided to do a cannon ball off the stairs! He managed to get 6 rows of little kids wet! Haha!

Both the investigators that came seem to enjoy Why I Believe a lot! They were laughing and had good comments afterwards. I'm not sure if M is interested in learning more about the church since she is a strong Cathloic. Rose on the other hand seem to want to learn more. When I challenged her to meet with the missionaries, She said, "We will see where God directs me". It's funny because we actually ran into her again last Sunday night! When we tried to get an email address, since she didn't answer any of our calls from the last 1 1/2 months, she said no 😟. But she was still nice as ever. I just hope she will have a change of mind and answer our calls!

Funny story! On Wednesday we were checking up on less actives that the Relief Society President wanted us to visit. At one apartment we had to call in to be let in. When we called, a man answered the phone and we asked if this lady lived there. In reply he said yes and why we were asking. We kept telling him we were we missionaries, but he couldn't understand us. Sister Cosper finally shouts, "WE ARE THE MISH-ON-AIR-ES". Then he mumbles something and hangs up. We waited a good 5 min because we didn't know if he said he would come down to get us... But he never came. We gained enough courage and called the apartment again, but it went to voice male.... Sad face!

Friday was a fun day! Our appointment got canceled with meeting a deaf lady that is friends with one of our deaf members. We REALLY hope we get to meet her next week! So instead of meeting with them, Sister Cosper and I decided to ride the train down to Gallaudet University. Wow that was an adventure! We met this super nice lady while waiting for our train that ended up being 30 min late. Once on the train Sister Cosper stayed with the he lady while I found another spot on the train to talk with someone else. A few stops in I decided to move closer to Sister Cosper so that we could see each other better. I saw a lady with two bags and I knew she didn't want anyone to sit next to her.... And what did I do??? I asked, "Can I sit here" as I sit next to her. Then I waited a full 30 sec to ask, "Hi! How are you?" She turns to me and sees my badge. She then quickly says, "I'll go sit somewhere else" and she was gone in a flash! Haha. I have never had that happen to me on the metro! Then it started getting crowed again. All of the sudden 3 teenagers/young adults are yelling, "EXCUSE ME... PARDON ME" as they were heading on other side of the train where we were sitting at. I was praying hard that they would leave us alone. They luckily didn't bother me much, but Sister Cosper wasn't so lucky. One of them saw my name badge was like "SISTER PARKER?!?" And I was like, yep that's my name! Other than that they didn't say more to me. On the other hand they were trying to get our number from Sister Cosper, but declined obviously . It was so scary because they were being so loud and obnoxious. But they left soon after and we road in peace!

After Institute class at Gallaudet,  we walked back to the metro. On our way back we saw a deaf man waiting to cross the street. We signed to him asking how was his day? And with that he went on and on about how he was and how he knew 11 sign languages around the world! It was hard for me to follow him because he was signing pretty fast and was using signs I didn't know. Sister Cosper said afterwards he was using foreign signs mixed in with ASL! Haha. But this is a fine example of true deaf culture here! If you ask a true deaf person how their day is.... Prepare for at least an hour conversation. On the other hand, in hearing cultures they say "how are you?" The person will quickly say "fine" or "good" and go on their way.

Saturday was a fun day too! We spent a lot of time doing service at one of the members home. We helped  put in linoleum flooring. It was like fake wood. It worked like puzzle pieces where it snaps in place. It was quite fun!!! We had a blast with the bishop and other members that came to help!

Sunday night was crazy! When we were on our way out to our car, we saw that our friend who works at the front desk was gone. We asked where she was and the two ladies that were there said she just left for the hospital. So Sister Cosper and I decided to help get things back in order until the replacement came. It was fun to talk to the two ladies while waiting and opening the doors for people coming in. We learned that one of the ladies at the front desk was moving in. To that, we insisted in helping her bring in her stuff from her car! That was a lot of fun!

As you can see, not to bad of a week! I'm excited to see what this week brings. I can tell you right now it will have lots of appointments and opportunities to talk with people! Well, I hope you are all doing well!

Much love,

Sister Parker

 

This is the view from our apartment!