The time Sis. Kucharek scared me so bad!

Me and Aggie!

Alright, so we had another productive and busy week! It wasn't as crazy as last week, but we were plenty busy! We were so busy, we didn't do weekly planing until yesterday! It was a fun and great week all around.

So on Monday we got snow and we couldn't leave our apartment. Instead we played card games ALL day and evening long! I think it was about 9 hours sitting in the floor playing different card games with our roommates. That was a lot of fun! We ordered in pizza for dinner and we were the last order for delivery! Talk about a blessing!

On Tuesday we went to the ASL branch president's house for dinner and had a meeting to talk about our deaf members and some questions we had in general. On the way there we ran out of gas! So we pulled up the nearest gas station we could find on the GPS. We drove through a town and realized we were in McLean! Sister Kucharek used to live in McLean about 7 years ago. That was fun to hear her say what she recognized and didn't recognize. The meeting went great and we had an awesome dinner!

On Wednesday we had interviews! We were 10 min early and NO one was there. Not even the zone leaders that usually gets there super early to set up. So we called the zone leaders at 8:15 to see if we still had interviews. They said yes and that they were just running late. Whew! Interviews went great! I have no idea what will happen next transfer...haha. I might be going English to rotate everyone through, but I'm not sure!

On Thursday after our meetings we went over to Aggie's apartment for her lesson. We meet the Amharic Elders with their recent convert who is also fluent in Amharic. The lesson went good! Aggie is sooooo cute and nice. She gives he best hugs! We aren't sure yet if the Amharic elders are going to teach her or not. Aggie seemed to be amused to have the Elders come and try to speak her native language, but we aren't sure if she sold on being taught in Amharic.

For dinner that night we went up to Georgetown to visit a lady who goes to the Brunswick deaf group in the Baltimore Mission. We had so much fun with her. She is super sweet and nice! I'm looking forward to meeting up with her once  while in a to see how she's doing. She loved having us visit with her because none of the missionaries know ASL to communicate with her!

That night getting ready for bed was a fun event! When I came into the bedroom after done getting ready for bed, right away I noticed Sister Kucahrek was gone. I had a feeling she was hiding in the closet. I put that thought aside and I zoned out. Then... BAM! Sister Kucharek jumps out of the closet and screamed really loud! I bend over and yell, "GALL, DANG IT!!!" We couldn't stop laughing! Apparently Sister Kucharek LOVES to scare people, so this week will be interesting to see if she decides to scare me again! Haha.

Friday was a good day! The best part was seeing Sister Thacker. She's a member and she wanted us to come do family history with her. We left way too late from institute and was really late to our appointment with her. She only had 20 min with us before she had to leave to get one of her kids from school. So we got right to work. With a few attempts we couldn't find a record to prove where one of her ancestors was born. Sister Kucahrek got a prompting to check where his parents were born and died. So we did and they both were born and died at the same place. So we were able to infer that the son was born in the same place since back then people didn't move unless going over seas completely. After putting that information in she was able to request the son's temple ordinances. That was a sweet experience. She was so excited that we were able to find a name for her to take to the temple. She told us "I'm going to recommend you guys to everyone in the ward! That was so much fun!"

Saturday was our Fredrick day. We saw Elisa and had our last official lesson with her! We talked about getting baptized and confirmed with her. Then we played a fun game to illustrate how the Holy Ghost works. I have done this with talking, but we had to do it with vibration (since she is deaf), so she could feel where she needed to go.

My favorite bowl broke!

So we first had her look away and we set up a little maze for her. Then one person covered her eyes while the other person stomped where she was supposed to walk without running into chairs and tables. She had SO much fun doing this! We all took turns being lead and leading. The funniest was when she lead her older brother up the stairs! Elisa was being really goofy and tricked everyone where she really was! What a goof ball :)

Sunday was another great day and full of miracles! Church was awesome and we had the Lagos come to church! That was nice to finally have someone deaf come to church and we could interpret for them. During young women we did a pep talk to help the young women get excited to do missionary work. That was weird and fun to be in young women opening exercises again. As a part of our pep talk we read parts from President Nelson's talk to share how important we as women are in carrying the gospel forward. I felt like it went really well. 

Ok so for our miracle! So since this last transfers there is a new rule for Why I Believe. If we want to go (which every one does cuz it's amazing!) then we have to bring an investigator, recent convert (that's has been a part of the church for 6 months or less), or a less active member. We had someone lined up, but they backed out after church. So I kept thinking of different people to invite. The first that came into my mind was Aggie, our investigator from Ethiopia. So we called her and she said she would love to come, but she needed a ride. We called around and found a ride for her with a part member family. The Finders are so awesome! They are so willing to give people's rides no matter the distance. We also saw Gloree and her husband at Why I Believe! Gloree is Jewish and has been going to church with her husband for 25 years now! She's so sweet, but very stubborn! 

Why I Believe was amazing! Fiona Givens was the speaker. Her husband did it last time. She did an amazing job. She was also very funny. We felt like we were in a lecture hall and she was teaching a class on religion. She talked a lot about Adam and Eve and the nature of God.

Here are basic points she covered:

1. God heart beats sympathetic to our feelings. 

2.We are eternal beings who lived with God

3. God has the power to save the whole human family

4. Heaven is a preservation of all our living relationships 

I hope you all are doing great! I love you all so very much and can feel your support! 

Your missionary friend,

Sister Parker