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