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!

The time I tried to get Sister Cosper to eat a cookie!

Wow! This week was AMAZING! I can't believe it's time to write again! It's pure craziness if you ask me! We have seen a lot of miraculous, laughter, and pure joy!

Ok so Tuesday was a big day for us! We visited S (the wife) and T (the husband) for a missionary discussion. They are deaf and less active. Well, we have beenworking with S for a while now and she has been coming to church these last few Sundays! But, T has not and hasn't been going for 6 months! This lesson was the first time really sitting down with T and we were both excited and nervous! What was really nice was that Brother Bjarnason heard we were going there and he wanted to join! Brother Bjarnason and
his wife comes to the ASL class every Tuesday, so he knows how to sign. The lesson went SUPER DUPER well! I loved having Bro. Bjarnason there to have another powerful testimony there and to add support for T
especially. We taught them the Plan of Salvation and T really got into it. He was so touched to be reminded he could actually live with God again. He said he never really known/ realized that. We reassured him, as he questioned that it might be too hard to achieve, that ANYONE can live with God again as long as they strive to be obedient to His commandments. It was so powerful to testify that God and Jesus Christ TRULY wants ALL of us back in their presence again. It truly is up to us to act righteously so we can live with them again. And words just cannot express my personal testimony of the Plan of Salvation... It's just a perfect plan with LOTS of chances to accept the gospel. It's a plan of love and happiness! When we left, T promised to read the Book of Mormon AND come to church!.... I'm proud to report S and T BOTH came on Sunday to church! I'm excited to continue to work with them this week!

Wednesday we got to do an endowment session! It has been way too long since going to the temple! It has been closed all last transfer so we couldn't go then.The temple was super nice. There were some things
that pointed out to me more than other times. I could feel of God's love and the sacrifice he had made to let us come down to earth. It was a tender experience to be in the temple again!

On Thursday Sister Cosper and I went to see Sister Taylor. Sister Taylor is so sweet and amazing!  We go every week to have lunch and help her with ASL. She helps do the hymns in Relief Society. It is fun to help  her learn ASL! The spirit in her home is so strong and feels like home! We had a nice lunch with her and she gave us cookies... Well, I ate them! They are gluten free because Sister Cosper is sensitive to Gluten... White sugar is also hard on her as well, so she decided to take her cookies for the road. While driving home I told Sister Cosper she HAS to try these cookies because they were SO GOOD! I even told her just try one bite.She kept telling me no then finally she said,"Ohhh I have a scripture for you!!! She then pulls out her scripture and reads 2 Nephi 28:8.. read it if you don't know what this says... Haha. I laughed SO HARD!!

For some reason Friday was my emotional day. Every missionary has these types of days. Sister Cosper was amazing and helped me through it. I tell you this because that night God cheered me up too! I was tired
and we had about an hour and a half left to go. We decided to go on the actual metro and talk with people. Up until now, I stayed away going on the metro because you have to be careful on how you approach
religion. It's against the law to full out preach on the metro. BUT, if people ask you questions, you can answer them. Do you know what was amazing?!?!? EVERYONE we talked to that night asked us flat out who we were! So, from there we could explain we were missionaries and what our purpose was in being there. The fist lady I talked to said, "I actually had been wanting to look into your church." I gave her the
Mormon.org card and the Why I Believe card too. She said she would look into it! I'm beating myself up now because I didn't get her contact info!! I sure hope she request missionaries soon! I was so shocked and happy I forgot to do that very important part of getting  her contact info. Oh well!

Saturday was a good day! We got to go to a convert baptism for a lady in our Ward! We have 3 sets of sister missionaries and the APs is in our Ward.... I don't know if I ever said that, but it's a party! The convert, F, who got baptized  has such a powerful testimony. F even wanted to bear her testimony on Sunday too! Her common theme was that she had so much fun being at church and around the church
members made her feel so good. It was important reminder for me to always keep that light of Christ shining in me! It was really neat to see how strong she is already is and how strong she will become!

OH MAN SUNDAY! Sunday could be an email in itself! We were BUSY! First off we had our normal 2 hours of meetings before church to discuss missionary efforts and ward matters. Then I got to do my normal prayer interpreting for sacrament meeting. Sister Cosper was amazing to let me try the first part of Sunday School. (Sister Lagos teaches the deaf Sunday School, but she was sick. So we had to go to the normal
gospel principle class.) I could only interpret for no longer than 10 minutes beacuse I couldn't hear the quote that was being read out loud to determine what signs to put with it. Sister Copser had a close watch on
me and knew when I was done. When she saw me struggling, she smoothly took over. She blows me away how well she can interpret for hours on end! We then had to leave after Sunday School to take a drive down to Alexandria, VA! We had to help interpret for a mid-single adult conference. We made it perfectly
there, but we were expecting a church building. Instead... We got directed to a high school. Luckily though, one set of ASL elders came in with their car right when we got out! So, we knew we had the right place. Ok side note: can anyone guess what high school we were at??? Hint: it is in Alexandria and it's in a movie.....


When we walked in we saw a sign that said..... "Remember the Titans" . We were all freaking out!!! Haha. This is the actual school where all the events took place. It had grown so much since then! I'm sure the whole movie wasn't shot here, but still!



The conference was super good! I loved just watching the interpreting while listening to the speaker. It's so cool to see how things get interpreted and creates a bigger picture of what happened. Sister Cosper truly has a talent and gift of interpreting! I really want to be as good at signing as she is! It blows me away! It turns
out there was only 2 deaf people there and I actually knew one of them! I met her when I went to the deaf branch at president VanDerGraff's house for dinner. We got to chat a little afterwards.

Then we got lost coming home! Haha... That was funnnnnnn NOT! I really need to take pictures of my directions there AND back! Lesson learned! Luckily we had enough time to eat dinner before "Why I Believe".

I can not believe a month has passed already to have "Why I Believe" again! Two investigators came that night so that was awesome! Even Sister Cosper helped interpret as well (yep, she has been doing that ALL day!)

Ah! Man I am running out of time to give my update. There is still more to say, but I will leave you with this and pick it up next week!

Love you all and hope you are doing well!

Sister Parker

The time we asked an Atheist to pray!

This week has been really good! The days went so smoothly, I even lost track what day it was all week! That was weird, but a cool feeling to have!

Thursday was a really good day! It was funny because I thought it was going to be the most boring day because our usual appointment with a lady in our Ward, Sister Taylor, fell through. But God has a way to spice things up! Haha. Right when we were almost done with weekly planing, we get a phone call from our dear friend MK. MK is the one with the headless nativity figurines. Anyways, MK is quite the character, but she is soooooo nice! She called us in a panic because she has a LOT of cats and she needed help cleaning up her house. Luckily we only focused on the living room.... Let's just say her house is VERY dirty and we even found a slug on the floor! It was fun because whenever we go to MK house Sister Cosper and I have a good time! We just laugh and clean the whole time!

After we cleaned, we got a another panic call from one of the Sister missionaries that needed a ride to the visitor center. We rushed home to pick them up and drove to the temple. When we got home we ate our dinner and waited for our Atheist friend to text us back. Let me share a little background on him. About two weeks ago we prayed to know where to street contact and we ran into him. He is from Iran and he is an Atheist.  He was very nice and we had a good time chatting about
his life in Iran and we shared a little about our church. Well, this week we asked if we could meet him again and he accepted. Although, he said, "just to let you girls know there is a slim chance that I'll
join your church." We didn't care! We were just excited to teach him a formal lesson. The lesson went good... But when we got to the part about asking him to pray about the Book of Mormon... He declined. He said that it wouldn't make sense to him to pray when he doesn't
believe in God. He said, "It would be like me asking you to stand on your head for 30 min... That would be foolish thing to ask." Then sweet Sister Cosper said, "Well, praying is a lot less dangerous than standing on our head." Haha. Our friend didn't know how to combat that one! He was stumped and said, " you know what I mean!" While walking (he likes to walk and talk with us) I realized I didn't formally teach him how we prayed yet! I was nervous because he already told us that he would not pray about he Book of Mormon. Well... Right before we were done talking, I said that there was one more thing we need to teach you. I told him the steps to prayer and he said, "huh, that's interesting.... It's like a letter!" I thought this was an interesting way to look at prayer. I don't think our friend will be interested in learning more, but we shall see this week when we check up on him.

On Friday we got to see J with the other sisters. (Reminder: J is a deaf investigator who the other Sister missionaries wanted our help with. We have to keep it simple because she doesn't know gospel signs well.) WOW! Did we have a good lesson with her, or what!?! We taught her prayer again
because she didn't understand about just being open and just talking with God. So, this time we taught her how to give thanks to God in her prayer. It took her a second to understand, but she did it! On her closing prayer she signed: FATHER THANK YOU SON SOON JESUS NAME AMEN.
(She was saying thank you that she gets to see her son soon.) We all we sooooooo happy and she was too! She wanted so hard to please us and she wanted to do it "right". She is the cutest deaf women ever! She was happy when we left... It touched my heart to see her give thanks to God.

Saturday was a day full of seeing our deaf members and helping Bro. Cranney with signing a hymn he will be interpreting for next week! First we met the Lagos family at a all-you-can-eat buffet. It was soooo good! We had a really nice time with them. Then we went to Charo's house, the one who didn't answer the door last week and we had to use a paper to get her attention. Well... It happened again! Her door was locked and I couldn't email her. So, we went straight to waving a paper under her door! Haha. It took a few min, but we got her attention to open the door. We also had a great visit with her! She is the sweetest and blunt lady I know! I love her so much! When we were about to play "Because He Lives", we were waiting for her eye contact. She kept glancing up and down looking at her phone. It was a full 30 sec. until she signed well aren't you going to play it!?! We laughed and then started the video! We always have a good time with Charo. Then we went to Brother Cranney's house for dinner! I love this couple SO much! They both are in the ASL class that happens every week. It was
really fun chatting with them and helping Bro. Cranney with the song he will be signing next week.

Sunday was a fun day! We had to take over for Sister Hill because she was watching her 4 little nieces and nephew plus her 4 kids. This means.... I had my real interpreting experience! Well.. I did interpret for prayers and some testimonies before, but NEVER a talk. I did all the songs, prayers, and the youth talk. I didn't do so hot in the youth talk, which isn't surprising! It was great to know that I have a LOT to improve on for interpreting! It's hard! I couldn't hear what the youth was saying because I was so focused on translating 20 sec ago. So that was fun! I also got to translate a little bit in R.S too, but not too long. By the time church ended I made a resolution with Sister Cosper to try to set time every day to go voiceoff... I tried to do it in the car and Sister Cosper didn't like that one bit! Haha. She said if you aren't going to talk than I'm not going to talk to you. She wanted both of my hands on the wheel haha! (No worries I was NOT even close to having an accident.) I respected her wishes and waited until we got home to do voice off. That was SO MUCH FUN! Sister Cosper is such a good, patient, and strict teacher! She tells me what I need to fix and what to work on, I love it!

Well that pretty much sums up my week! I hope you are all doing great as I am!

Lots of love!

Sister Parker

P.S. I have finally accepted my name sign! This is what deaf people use instead of spelling your name every time. Sister Lagos gave it to me, but I had a hard time accepting it because it's literally means PARK AGENT. Or in other works, someone who parks. I finally gave in to that name sign because EVERY TIME Sister Lagos signs my name sign she smiles! I love this women sooo much! So I have now my 1st name sign!

On another side note... Sister Cosper keeps doing hearing checks on me! Haha... The reason
being is because the video phone people said that I MUST be hard of hearing to have the vp. So we are thinking the man who is coming to install it is going to check to see if I'm TRULY hard of hearing!

So sweet sweet Sister Cosper will scream, slam on desk loudly, and just make loud noises... And...I fail the hearing test ALL THE TIME, it's so funny!

Trying to get in a deaf lady's house without breaking the law!

This week was pretty good! We are still plugging along trying to find people to teach. We had some amazing opportunities to talk with people about our church. We just need to get in contact with them to see if they want to formally take the lessons.

Monday was what I call, "the act of faith night"! Both Sister Cosper and I were not
excited about street contacting and knocking on doors, but we did it anyways! With some rejection to the door approach, we decided to just walk around and find people to talk to on the streets. After a while, I was feeling discouraged and told Sister Cosper I would rather knock on doors and actually talk to people. But she wanted to keep walking, so we did. Then finally we saw a car pull up to their driveway and I was like "YES SOMEONE TO TALK TO!!!!" We had perfect timing as we approached the man, he was getting out of his car. We had an amazing conversation about his family and about his beliefs. It turns out he has twin daughters that are doing completely different things! One is in the military and the other is at school. It was neat to relate to him in that way. Then we invited him to the visitor center and he accepted! He said he has lived here for about 20 years and has always wanted to go, but just never gone. When we were saying our good byes, he told us that we made his night. In return, we exclaimed that he made OUR night! He was the only person we talked to that was happy to see us and it was worth the walk and the rejection that happened before hand!

Wednesday was transfer day! I am staying with Sister Cosper for another transfer!!! Yay! The meeting was way shorter than usual because there was only 4 elders and a senior couple going home. For the rest hymn we sang, to the Senior couple's request, "How Great the Wisdom and the Love" to the tune of "Amazing Grace". It was very powerful and touching!

Afterwards we went to a deaf member's house for our appointment. But here's the thing... Her phone wasn't working so we couldn't text her when we got there. Also, the Internet wasn't strong enough to send her a message to say we were at her door. So instead, I tried knocking loudly to see if her hearing daughter was there to answer the door... No luck. Then we went outside to wave a stick in front of her window... But the blinds were closed and the little spot that was open wasn't enough! Then we went back inside and Sister Cosper tried shaking the knob to allow her to see someone was at her door. Still... No answer. Just so you know we weren't crazy for trying so hard.... We
could hear her moving around inside this WHOLE TIME! Haha... What finally got us in??? We wrote on a piece of paper that Sister Cosper and Parker were here and to please let us in! We put the paper under her door and shook it back and forth! It took a minute, but she finally saw it! Haha.

Sister Cosper shaking our note back and forth!

On Thursday I prayed that we would have people to talk to as we went our way to appointment to appointment. I wanted to have time to talk with people about our church since we had a full day of seeing members and weekly planing... Wow! Did God answer our prayer or what?!? First off we
went outside to change our tire, but we didn't have luck on trying to do it ourselves. While fiddling with our tire, we met M who walked passed us. When we went back inside to change our clothes, M was sitting in the lobby. She asked us one simple question, "How old are you girls?" From that question...our conversation lasted for an hour and a half! We got her contact info, so hopefully she will be interested in learning more on what we believe in!

On Friday..... Let's just say the tittle will be: The day I got lost in DC.... Twice! The first time was my fault. I put in Gallaudet University in my GPS without looking at the end destination... I mean
there is only one Gallaudet I know of!!! Wrong! Haha. I knew it was wrong from the start, but I  thought the GPS maybe taking us a new way. Luckily Sister Cosper is really good at reading maps and finally got it us to Gallaudet in time for institute. Then afterwards.... We were going to an appointment with the other ASL sisters to help teach an investigator. We got lost once again! After
another hour passed, I decided to bag it and go to our dinner appointment. Luckily, we were right on time! Haha. All I can say about getting lost is that God knew my intentions and he can't get mad at me for trying! It was one of those days everyone needs to have once and a while. It was a humbling experience to slow down and figure out how to get out of the mess.

Saturday and Sunday were AMAZING with General Conference! There are too many good talks to take time and go through each one. My favorites from each session:

Larry R. Lawrence: How important it is to ask God what you need to do to change and be a better person. I love how he explains how the Holy Ghost will be very honest, so be ready for His answer! What is so amazing though, is that the Holy Ghost will give you customized answers that are specifically for you!

Robert D Hales: I will seriously look at this talk when I get back for my mission 😀😜. For those who watched it knows why. HE gave good advice on making sure you are being the person you ought
to be in the first place.

President Nelson: Wow! Probably the most powerful talk from of this conference for me! If I need motivation.... I'm reading this talk! I also thought it was really neat how Elder Renlund was just before President Nelson and they both talked about the struggles they had on being heart surgeons.
Both of their talks were REALLY good!

Ah! The last session is hard to choose! I'll have to say Devin G. Durrant. I'm going to do his challenge for at least to the end of my mission! I will chose a different scripture every week to ponderize about! This week I will chose 2nd Nephi 9:18. You all can hold me to it! I'll put a scripture at the end of every letter to let you know what scripture I'm ponderizing this week!

The other talk I loved was Elder Bednar. I was so touched by his beautiful tribute to the last 6 apostles and prophet that have passed away.

I hope you all are doing great! I'm excited for this coming week and looking forward to see what God has in store for me and Sister Cosper to do!

Love you all!

Sister Parker