This week was slow, but kinda fast at the same time! It's weird how that happens. The first part of the week was kinda slow and hard, but we pushed through it and finished the week strong!
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| Our leaky dishwasher!! |
Then... We got home with no power which means... We had to climb up 17 stories! It was a lot of fun... Well at least ot was a good workout! This is the second time doing this with the elevator being out of service. The first time was a couple of weeks ago... That time was harder because we already worked out, so it only intensified our workout haha!
That night we had a meeting with the new ASL branch Ward mission leader. We got to tag along since we are trying to connect RV efforts to the branch. We got to meet the new ASL elder that came in that very day. His name is Elder Blood and he's awesome! He's going to make a great missionary. The new mission leader, Nathan, is the branch president's son who recently came home from his mission from Argentina. He came up with an awesome idea to have deaf meet ups within our own area every week then a "zone" activity every month to help get people doing their FHE together. Hopefully we can get this idea up and running soon!
On Wendesday we did sealings! It was a tender mercy because we were able to do ALL of our names we brought because it wasn't very busy, so we had more time to do more names. Yay! Then that afternoon we got a referral with a past investigator. I had this prompting we should go, but wasn't sure. Sister Kucharek said we should go, so we did! Wow! I'm so glad we went because this man was awesome! He has had many touches with the church and you can tell he is dying to learn more and to get baptized. His only problem is his wife. She hates religion and doesn't want him to be involved in it. In fact he told us to hurray and leave before she got home, so she
wouldn't see us. We were able to share a quick message with him and he appreciated it. It was so amazing that we were able to act on that prompting and be there when his wife wasn't there. It broke my heart afterwards to think someone like him was so so so ready to hear the gospel, but can't because they want to respect their spouse opinion. I'm praying that he or his wife will have a change of mind because this man needs to be taught!
On Thursday we got to help with car checks! It was so much fun!!! We checked the tires and fluids. The Senior Elder who was over car checks was very impressed with us how fast and efficient we got it done. He said we were even better than the Elder who normally helps! After our meeting we were able to have 2 lessons with a member present! God is wonderful!!! We set a goal for having 2 member present this week for our missionary lessons and he gave it to us! The first was with a less active and her mom who isn't a member. The mom was there for a visit for a few weeks while our less active is having surgery and recovering. That was an awesome experience! The mom was asking amazing questions and the daughter was able to answer the questions and we were just there to help clarify and testify what we were talking about was true. It was great!
The second member present was with Aggie! This time it was a return missionary who got back a month ago! She served a Spanish mission in CA. She was wonderful help with teaching Aggie. We all tried to get Aggie to move up her baptism date to be sooner, but she said no. She kept saying she was fasting and can't pray about moving her baptism day to be sooner. Oh well! We are going to see Aggie again with another member and see what we can do to help Aggie along!
We got to teach Sally on Firday! We met her at the deaf and blind event a few months ago. She's so awesome! She is deaf and is so sweet. She said she wanted to go to the deaf branch this Sunday, but she turned out to be sick last Sunday. But hopefully next Sunday she will be able to go!
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| Elisa, the newest member!! |
We didn't have institute class last week, so, instead we had a less active from the deaf branch teach us some Korean sign language. That was a lot of fun! The basics are the pinky represents a girl and the thumb represents a
boy. It was fun to see all the basic signs for different sexes. On the way out from institute class we got stopped by a deaf couple. They asked us if we were missionaries and we had a nice conversation about what God thinks about swearing. We gave them our contact info so that they could invite us to a dance they where doing... Don't worry! We aren't going to go!! But, maybe in return we can invite them to learn more about our church!
Saturday was a super good day!!! It was Elisa's baptism! Ilove that girl so much! I felt like a proud mama that day! Haha. It has been such a pleasure working with her since November with Sister Cosper and getting her ready to be baptized with Sister Kucharek She is one smart kid who seemed to understand what we were teaching every time. It was so neat to see the interpreter adjust what was being said to match Elisa's understanding and to grab her attention. It was amazing to watch it happen! We got to sit with the interpreter's daughter who is deaf too! There was quite a number of deaf people who
goes to the Brunswick Ward (that's the Ward Elisa goes to) and so they have a few interpreters that can help out through all their three hours of chruch! Gillian, the girl we sat with, is so sweet! She and her mom wants us to come over for dinner sometime and get to know each other better! Overall it was a great and fun baptism!That night we got a paper (yes.. PAPER!!) area book binder full of past investigators! The other RV sisters had it in their apartment. Sister Kucharek called 70 people that night! 5 of which said to call them back or they will call us in a few days once they know their schedule.My job was to put in their information and about their past lessons. That took some time!!! I felt so much love for these 5 people though as they once had an interest in learning more about the gospel. Hopefully we can get in contact with them and be able to teach them again! The last one we call was so funny! She is now 86 years old and was first investigating the church in 2004. Her first reaction when we called was "Wow! You sisters were lost!" Haha.
Church was really good yesterday. We didn't have any deaf members come, so that was sad. I wished everyone could come every week. It's a lot of fun when they come together for ASL Sunday School class. One of the best parts about yesterday was hearing the recently returned missionary give her welcome home talk. She's the one who came out with us with Aggie. She did a fabulous job! I loved hearing about her mission. It made me think about Candice and how ready she was to hear the gospel. It was crazy because Candice was making lifestyle changes years before we met her, so by the time we taught her, she was already living a LDS lifestyle. That was a miracle in of itself. Recently I have seen and heard recent converts having a hard time with past addictions. This doesn't make them weak at all!!! It has given me a new appreciation how hard it is to leave your past life behind. So
shout out to all my recent converts: You can do it! I'm so proud of you. With the Saviors help you can overcome any addictions and move on from your past life. It won't be easy, but you can do it!
Love you all so much!
Sister Parker
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| We got to eat out today and say goodbyes to missionaries going home! |
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