The time I got to ride a bike... In a skirt!

Holy Cow!!! This week has been one of the best weeks on my mission! The Lord has decided to pour down a bucket full of miracles and dump on us this week. We feel so humbled being drenched in tender mercies. We keep asking ourselves, "What did we do to deserve this?!?! God is truly kind and loving and people are simply just ready to hear the gospel! We now have 8 new investigators!!! Granted a lot of these aren't actually interested, but we still had a good lesson with them anyways. Those that are interested are really hungering after the gospel! This next week is going to be a good one!!! We have a couple more appointments lined up to have even more new
investigators!

Instead of going day by day. I'm going to go people by people this week! I'll first talk about my exchange on Tuesday to Capital Hill, then I'll talk about the people in Rockville.

Ok so Tuesday was a super fun day! I got to spend a day with Sister Griffin for the day and it was a blast! We first went to a hospital and met with two Michael's! They are both so ready and hungry to hear the gospel!!! I can't wait to see Sister Griffin and Sister Nolte again and ask them how the Michael's are doing! It's so funny because they are staying in the same hospital, just a floor apart! The spirit was so strong in both of their lessons as we talked about the Book of Mormon and how much God really does love us. It's amazing how a person can be born or put in a humble circumstance that allows them to be ready to hear the gospel. This pertains especially to the second Michael I met with. He got in a nasty motorcycle accident and injured his leg pretty bad,so he is in the hospital recuperating from that. If he wasn't there in the hospital, who knows if the missionaries would have met him just as he was coming out for a afternoon stroll in his wheel chair. Both of these Michael's just amaze me and have increased my testimonies just listening to them!

We then went back to get the bikes. Yes... We had to bike in our skirt. There is an art and skill to be able to do this without showing anything. It was quite fun actually once I got going on the bike! I just had to figure out to put my purse over my head so it would stop hitting my wheel! I might have looked goofy, but it worked! The last
lady we were able to meet happened while tracking. We knocked on her door and she said she wasn't interested. But, somehow she let us keep talking and she said, "OK, I'll listen to what you have to say." So she came out and we sat on her porch for a good 30-45 min and we had a fabulous lesson with her about Christ and the Book of Mormon. We got her to read Moroni's promise in Mormon 10:4-5 and had her look at 3rd Nephi 11. This is while she was telling us she didn't want the book. We kept passing the Book of Mormon back to her to read these two
things. But... She still wouldn't take it. She said she would just pray about it and then see if the Book of Mormon is true. Hopefully she will have enough real intent to follow through with her promise to pray about it. It was so neat to see the Spirit work on her to let us talk with her even though she kept saying she wasn't interested.

While I was cruising down the roads in Capital Hill on a bike, Sister Nolte and Sister Kucharek were having a really successful day in street and elevator lessons! They even got to talk with Ann Black about the gospel. She is a deaf and blind lady who has no intentions in learning more about our church. We kept going over there to serve her until she starts asking questions about the church and why we are actually there to serve her. Well.. She finally did ask those questions and they were able to have a little lesson with her!

The miracle of the day was they were able to meet Dan on their way for Sister Kucharek to find some lunch. Her and I didn't have time to eat lunch before exchanges, so she was starving! So they were right outside 5 Guys when
Patrick and Dan came up to talk with them. Dan had a real interest in learning more because his twin brother joined the church in Nevada, but lost contact with it when her moved back here. So they got Dan contact information! We called him on Friday and set an appointment for this week and invited him to come to church! He said he would love to come! He ended up getting dropped off at the church at 7:00am, so we had to rush over to get there at 7:30 to have a lesson with him before church! We taught him the Restoration and random preach my gospel principles to tell him different things we do as a church. The amazing thing is those "random" things we taught him were ALL covered again in Sacrament meeting and Sunday School!! Dan is drinking up the gospel and is so ready to learn more. He's also every excited to meet people and say "Hi" to everyone! I'm so excited to meet with him again this week! Oh another miracle about Dan... He lives in our boundaries! Sister Kucahrek just met him on the streets, so there was no saying where he lived!

On Thursday we went to go contact two referrals that came from SLC temple square. It looked like the two referrals are friends since they both live in the Rockville Ward boundaries!!! We tried the first referral, but it
was a locked apartment and the phone number didn't work. So, we called the other one, Leo. He answered our phone call and seems excited to meet with us! We set an appointment to meet with him on Thursday!

Friday was a HUGE miracle day! It first started off having Ryan come to institute. He is going blind and we tried to pass him off to the Elders. He contacted us and said he would come to the first 30 min of institute, which he did and what did we talk about??!! The Restoration! It's hard to get Ryan focused on gospel related things, so we have
never brought up the Restoration. So that was a tender mercy we were able to have a lesson on that! We don't know what he thought about it because he had to leave. We will have to see what this week brings with him!

On our way back from institute, Sister Kucharek suggested that we make all the calls we wanted to make on our 1
hour drive back to Rockville. So we did! We called a ton of people and some of them picked up and said they would like to meet with us! Most of them said Thursday works for them... So we won't be eating dinner 
until 9:30 that night! So that will be a ton of fun! One of them met the missionaries back in 2010 and never been taught since then. He seems so interested and very nice!

We met with Ann again on Saturday! We are making slow progress of getting Ann interested in learning more about the church. It's a miracle that she is asking questions finally and now talking about gospel related things! She also asked us to pray for her to find a roommate... so we also got to testify that God loves her and will
answer her prayers. Pray for us that Ann will keep asking these questions and we can start sharing what we
believe!

Saturday night was Rose and David's baptism! I'm not sure how Rose found the church, but David's friend is a recent convert and he shared the gospel with him. I love Rose sooooo much! She so sweet and has an amazing testimony. She was so adorable because she was afraid she was going to drown when she got baptized. When she came out of the water she says, "OK thank you!" We all chuckled. It was a great night seeing those two get baptized! The Rockville Ward is growing!!!

To say the least this next week will be an exciting ride! I'm so so so excited to meet all of these people we set appointments with. Pray that everyone will keep their appointments and they will feel the
spirit! Saturday is call out! I'm sad to say, but I might be leaving. It's time, but it's going to be a little hard to leave an area that is just now picking up all these people to teach. Either way, I'm excited to hear about all these people's progression in learning about the gospel from the missionaries that will work with them. There is no saying where I'll go, so that will be exciting!

I love you all a lot! I hope you all are doing awesome and are happy. Things in DC are doing great and the gospel is continuing to spread the good news!

Your Sister Missionary,

Sister Parker

 We got to go to the Temple this week! Sister Griffin, the one I was
in exchanges with, is the one at the end on the far right.

The time I got to be in a parade!

Hello everyone! 

This week was a crazy, fun, funny, and exciting week! There are many fun stories to share this week. So, hold on because this will be a jam packed email!

At the Parade!

On Monday we shared a spiritual thought that we heard the APs do with some of the members. We had the members count the "f"s in 1 Nephi 1:1. It was so funny to watch the family compete who could find all the "f"s first. None of them weren't able to find them all until we read the verse out loud (it took them twice to read it out loud!) Together we found all the "f"s. I challenge you all to do this with your family! I'll put the answer at the end of the email, so you won't go nuts wondering how many there are!

On Wednesday we had a sister's conference before interviews. The theme was how to keep going on our missions and how to joyfully endure through the hard times. It was something I really needed to hear. Missions are tough, but we don't need to be weighed down by the challenges that missions bring. My favorite thing that Sister Cooke said was that even Christ had to endure on the cross. That's all He was doing. He was done with teaching, serving, blessing the sick, etc. His whole purpose on the cross was to endure until the Atonement was finished. That really touched me because Christ is the number one example on knowing how to endure through hard things especially when it's the only thing that you can do at the moment. 

My interview was nice and short with President Cooke. It sounds like I'll be getting a new companion next transfer! I'm nervous, but excited for a change. I'm guessing I'll be going to a new area as well, since it will be 8 months on May 1st in this area. Crazy I have been in this Ward for this long! This Ward is literally the best Ward to be in because they are so missionary minded and love to fellowship people in. The work here is really moving fast! We have 2 baptisms in the Ward this Saturday! One is Rose and the other is David. The APs and the "Home Teachers" (aka Traveling APs) have been teaching them. That's 4 baptism in the month of April!! This does not happen! Anyways... We will find out in 2 weeks what will happen next transfer!

On Wednesday we went to Ann's house! We brought a crock pot creamy chicken to make pasta for lunch. We also made cookies too! So, I mixed up all the cookie dough and put a batch in the oven. Sister Kucharek then eats a little cookie dough then asks, "umm... I wonder if the eggs I gave you is rotten?" We then grabbed the other egg that was with it and tried the water trick. If the egg floats it's bad, if it sinks it's good to use. So we tried it with an egg and it floated right to the top! So... We called some Elders and asked what we should do and they said as long as it isn't smelly and doesn't look weird when you cracked the eggs, it's ok. Their last word were, just bless the cookies just to make sure! Haha! So, we figured with that it was ok because it didn't smell and we blessed the cookies! No one got sick, so we are good to go!

The craziest thing happened on our way home from ASL class. We got on the highway and Sister Kucahrek yells, "OH MY GOSH!!! DO YOU SEE THAT?!?!?!" Right ahead of us we saw a pick up truck in the other lane of traffic on fire! We couldn't see anyone in the truck, but it was a scary sight! Here is a video that I took!

Thursday was a JAM packed day of lessons and meetings. We had 5 lessons in all! Our last one was with our investigator, Feng from Taiwan. We finalized the time to meet with him at 8:00 when he though we were meeting at 9 instead! It was funny because we saw Feng running on our way to where we were going to meet. We got to the place super early and so we just waited in the car. While waiting, we saw the APs behind us. We pulled down our window and said Hi. We scared Elder Tanner because he thought we were gone... He was going to prank our car! Haha... Good thing we were still there. Our lesson with Feng went good. It's going to be hard to get him to pray because he's not sure if there even is a God. So pray that he will pray about that this week!

Friday morning was normal until... We got back from working out. We got a call out for an emergency drill!!! I was so proud of myself because we were the first ones there and the last times we did these drills I have always been the last one there! We couldn't leave until all the people in our district arrived at the church building. We were at the church for 1 hour and a 1/2. So... Not too bad.

Saturday was the BEST day of the week! We got to help out at the cherry blossom parade. I got to stand in a comer directing people where to go and answering any questions they had. Big tender mercy.... Sister Ram (one of the ASL sisters) met a deaf family!!! She and Sister Cosper helped them find a place to sit and they chatted for a sec. The deaf mom gave them their contact information!!! Hopefully they will want to learn more about the gospel! If they are, they will be taught by the other ASL sisters who are over the ASL branch. The elders also found 2 deaf guys there at the parade too!!! They also got their contact information!!! That was so cool! While I was standing on my spot with 2 other sisters and one of President Cooke's daughters, a lady asked us if we wanted to be in a parade. We of course said yes!!! So... We got to walk in the parade while holding a banner for a singer that I can't remember the name... I think he is a YouTube singer... So if you can find the parade, you might can see me on TV! 

Yesterday was the craziest Sunday ever! We got to sacrament meeting and its starting and we still didn't see Aggie come in. We then get a text from our member saying that Aggie isn't answering her phone. So we rushed out of the sacrament meeting  to call Aggie. Just then, one of sister missionaries got up and said Aggie is right there! Well... It turns out that Aggie got a ride from another member!!! Aggie got confirmed and all is well! After sacrament meeting we went with Aggie with the Ward employment specialist to talk about Aggie getting a job. On the way to Sunday School class, the other RV sisters stopped us and asked if we were teaching today.... We had no idea who was supposed to teach... So we stepped up to the plate and taught a lesson on... Priesthood Organization! Wow... That was a fun lesson to teach right on the spot! It actually wasn't too bad. My favorite part was asking 2 recent converts about their experiences about passing, preparing and blessing the sacrament. It was touching to hear their perspective on it. Then in R.S. Aggie got pulled out to meet with the bishop for a temple interview.... We were not prepared for that, so we'll have to tell her what that's is all about this week! Afterwards Aggie got invited to the Ward choir and she accepted! It's so great to see Aggie make friends and being with the Ward members! 

Today we had the best Zone activity ever! We had a sports/game day at the park and BBQ! We played volleyball, kickball, water balloon relay, and a game called jigs up. It deals with a quarter. You have 2 teams sitting on either side of the table. One team close their eyes while the other passes the quarter around. The team with their eyes close says "jigs up" and the other team closes their fist. Then they have to guess who has the quarter after the other team slams or rolls their hand down on the table. Super fun game! After lunch we played capture the flag! It was a super fun day at the park! 

I hope you all are well and enjoying the spring time! Love you all!

Much Love,

Sister Parker

P.S. The number of "f's" in Nephi 1:1 is 14

Freedom day has come!

Hello everyone!!!

Where do I start??? This week was so good and fun and overall a spiritual high! All week we have been preparing for Aggie's baptism...And she got baptized yesterday!!! I will start from the beginning of this week of preparing for Aggie's baptism. It was a fun and touching journey!

On Tuesday, Aggie had a get-to-know-you interview with the bishop. We had the Relief Society president pick her up so they could officially meet. The bishop had us all go in and talk together. The most powerful thing Aggie said was the reason why she wanted to be baptized. She said she could feel a good power from the Book of
Mormon. She felt and knew it was true when she read it. It made me feel good because we did use the Book of Mormon a lot in our teachings because she could understand it a lot better when she could read it herself. So that was neat to hear her simple testimony of the Book of Mormon. Later in her interview Aggie said she felt like she needed to get baptized because Jesus got baptized, so she should too! You can't beat that!

Friday was the official interview. We went over earlier to go over the questions before our district leader got there. Aggie was able to answer all the questions without a problem. She was adorable!! She was nervous about the interview because she thought we were going to test her knowledge on the Bible and what not. So when we told her that was it, she was like "REALLY?!?! That was easy!" Haha. So as you can imagine, she passed without a problem. Something I learned from Aggie is that you really don't need to know everything. What you know is enough and you will ALWAYS learn as you go through life. This especially goes for living the gospel. You don't need to know every scripture to really understand how to live your life. The gospel is simple for a reason. It invites all people to come as they are and to learn at their own pace.

So Sunday finally came! Aggie came to church and really enjoyed it. People kept coming up to her introduce themselves. She would then ask if they were going to her baptism. They would say yes and then she would get this smile and act all shy. It was adorable! She has been so excited all week and she kept smiling all of Sunday!  Ok.. So we reminded Aggie a few times through out the week that she needed extra underclothing and a towel for after her baptism. When Kucharek  and I got to the chrch, we said a short prayer and got out of the car right when Aggie came with her ride. Sister Kucharek felt prompted to ask Aggie if she brought her towel and extra change of clothes. Aggie then got embarrassed and told us she had them ready to go in a bag, but she forgot the bag! So Sister Kucharek and I raced as fast as Tiwi (the device in our car that tells us if we are speeding or driving too aggressively) would allow us to go and get Aggie's things. It was epic how smooth and fast we got in and out of there. It made the baptism more exciting that's for sure! We got back in plenty of time to take pictures and welcome everyone.

We were able to have all the sisters there that helped teach Aggie and we even got Sister Everton, aka Grace, Skype in from CA. It was such a good feeling conducting the music and seeing Grace be apart if it. Grace went home last transfers and I miss her so much! The baptism went smoothly. All the talks were fantastic and brought a great spirit to the meeting. Our awesome ward missionary leader, Brother Jackson, baptized Aggie. When it was time for Aggie to be baptized, she had to do it twice because she didn't go under all the way he first time. She was a trooper and did it again! Afterwards we asked how she was feeling. She kept saying, "I'm really happy!" She was all smiles that night! She even got to talk with Sister Everton for a second. Aggie made a comment how today is my day of freedom! (Background story: For the longest time since December she wanted to get baptized on 4th of July because it's freedom day.) So that touched my heart how she
made April 10th to be her freedom day. I love this women so much!!!

Now begins the adventure of teaching Aggie the new member lessons. Which means just teaching the missionary discussions again. I'm so excited to bring more members out with us and giving her the chance to build more friendships!.

Other than Aggie, the 2nd most exciting news happened on Thursday! We got to meet Lunette! The other sister missionaries met her when trying to find new move ins and she was there at the house. She turns out to live in our area! So the sisters passed her to us. Can I just say Lunette is so awesome?!?! She is so ready to hear the gospel. One of her sons passed away 3 years ago and she was eager to learn what happens after this life.The spirit was so strong as we testified about the spirit world and why we have temples. This lead into the Restoration as we explained what priesthood power is. Sister Kucharek recited the 1st vision and Lunette told me after that she felt the spirit more stronger than ever before reciting the first vision. She wrote down all the scriptures we used to look up after we left. She was going to come to church yesterday, but she got off of work too late and couldn't make it. I'm so excited to meet with her again this week!

Also on Saturday, we had a ward party and the kids were NUTS!!! They were running all over the place. It was giving us missionaries heart attacks! Haha! Well, afterwards while we were cleaning up, one of the little girls there pulled the fire alarm! Everyone quickly left thereafter and only a few people remained to help finish the job! Luckily the fire alarm wasn't too annoying, so we could finish cleaning up without losing our hearing! Haha! 

In other exciting news.... I let Sister Kucharek cut my hair! This was the first time she has ever cut anyone's hair. She did a great job. I needed to get rid of my dead ends and get my hair looking healthy again. Also... Funny story! I have been asking Sister Kucharek what I could do to show my appreciation for her... We finally found the answer! On Satruuday we helped a lady do her laundry because she had back surgery a month ago. She isn't allowed to bend, so she needed some help. Sister Kucahrek didn't want to touch someone else's dirty clothes, so I drove right on in and did it myself! Sister Kcuarek told me that this is how I can show my love for her. Haha

Well, that was my exciting week! I hope everyone is doing well and happy. I love you all very much!

Your Sister Missionary,

Sister Parker

My new haircut!! 

The craziest April Fools I Ever Had!.... But seriously it did happen!

Hello everyone!

I can't believe it is time to write again how my week went! It went so fast!! It was a good week!

Us with Sister Brown!

Monday: We went to the Cranney's house for dinner with the other Rockville sisters. They are the best! I had Bro Cranney tell us about the time he was on his mission in New York during 9/11. It's a crazy story! He and his companion got permission to go take pictures of what happened to the twins towers. On the way back the subways were closed down, so he and his comp, a long with 7 other people, went through the subway tunnels to go back home. As you can guess they had a few freaked out voice messages on their phone. We kept joking how only a dumb elder would do that! Before we left we saw their baby girl's room! The baby is due on April 10th. It was so cute!  It is dragon themed. Over the crib it says "A true princess fights her own dragons" 

Tues: We had to use the map again to find out what street to go tracking on! We looked before we left to see if anyone showed up on our map that lived on that street and no one showed up. So we  instead we knocked on that street. Almost everyone answered their door! They all said they weren't interested except for one guy! He answered the door and he looked happy/surprised to see us! He said that he already had 2 Book of Mormons. He asked if we wanted one back. We promptly told him, "No, you keep it!" Then we asked if he would be interested in learning more and he said yes, but after he read some of the Book of Mormon. We told him sure and we got his number! I'm excited to try to get in contact with him this week!

Wed: That day was a BIG service day. We went over to the Brown's to help clean the baseboards of the house. They moved out yesterday. I'm going to miss them so much!

Thurs: we had a funny district meeting! Our district leader, Elder Thorpe, had us show a hidden talent that you would show to 6th graders to impress them. To start off Elder Thorpe showed us how he could flick his pointer finger by hitting his middle finger and it made a snapping noise. He can do it with both hands! He looks like a crab when he does it haha! The other people in my district had something physical talent they could do too. Lots of cracking of joints. Haha. The sister before me said, "Well, I can't  close one eye at a time. It just closes together. Plus, I can't  roll my tongue over to the side." So I got up and said that what ever she said she can't do I can! I close one eye ALL the time and I can only roll my tongue to the right. Haha. It was so funny.

Friday: This is the craziest day ever! To kick off April Fools the night before, Sister Kucharek told me to put an Onguard bead in my mouth. Then she told me to bite down on it, so I did! OH MY GOODNESS did that taste nasty! It burned and made my tongue go numb for like 5 min! It was quite funny... Wished we got it on tape!  On Friday morning Sister Kucharek was going to have an alarm go off at 5:30am to prank me, but she woke up at 5:00 and couldn't go back to sleep. She turned off the alarm because she was afraid once it went off she would be asleep again. So, instead my trick from her was a bunch of photos and a videos on my iPad wishing me luck for April Fools day. Haha. 

So there is this crazy intersection off a roundabout that we use every week to go to Gallaudet. Without fail every time we almost get hit because the car in the next lane wants to take a left instead of going straight. We didn't get hit that day, but we were soooo close yet again! At institute Ryan was already there waiting for us! We dropped him a couple of weeks ago because he didn't have an interest of learning more. He just wants to chat. Anyways Ryan came and he said he enjoyed it! He said he would be interested in going to the Deaf Branch next week.  We passed him off to the Elders to see if he does better with them. I'm excited to see what happens!

On our way to our next appointment we saw 3.... yes...3 separate area with of some serious police action! The first time was right in DC. There were 10 police cars outside a pond shop. There was tons of people on the sidewalks and also cameras! The second time was getting onto the freeway. Its really a highway... Anyways we just got on and we see 3 or 4 motorcycles with red and blue lights on. They weren't making any noise, so we were confused what was going on. About 3 min later they start signaling everyone to pull over. So we did.... Than 1,2,3... 10 police motorcycles zoom passed and we were really confused! Then we saw 2 SUVs with 2 black Cadillacs that had American flags on it. Then it was followed with 2 or more SUVs and 4 cop cars trailing behind. That was a scene! We are guessing we just saw the President of the United States pass through... Only in DC would this happen! Haha. The third time wasn't as exciting as the 1st two. It was just 2 cop cars doing a drug bust. They had gloves on and looking through a paper bag. All of this happened from ONE car ride! That was pretty intense and fun ride up! Haha

We got to see Aggie that afternoon with our mission leader's wife. The lesson went really well. We decided that Aggie does so much better when a member comes with us. She is much more talkative and gives better feedback with what she is understanding. If everything goes well, she should be able to get baptized next week! She might have a problem with tea though... And she likes to put coffee in her milk because she doesn't like white milk! We are going to give her coco powder to substitute for the coffee. Wish us luck this week that everything will fall into place! 

Saturday and Sunday was taken up by General Conference! We were able to go to the visitor center to watch it with Aggie. We were late to meet her because we had to set up General Conference in ASL at the stake center next door. (yes.. I go to church right next to the temple! Literally they are neighbors!) Aggie seemed to enjoy conference and is so excited to get baptized! Saturday afternoon and Sun morning we watched the conference in ASL hoping people from the branch would come. Sat afternoon we had Jackie come. I helped teach her way back in Nov. she was the lady we tried to help teach her how to pray. The other sisters are working with her now. That was fun to see her again! Sat night we were going to have a pass off lesson with the other sisters, but the lady forgot to tell us she was not home. So, hopefully we will get to meet her this week!

So General Conference happened! It was so good! I really enjoyed Elder Holland's talk. It was exactly what I needed. He was the perfect way end the conference with. I also enjoyed Pres, Eyring's talk about faith. There were so many great talks. I'm so excited to go back and read and mark them up! What's neat is watching general conference in ASL. Watching it in ASL was especially fun with stories! The best one was the 4 year old when he said, "Sometimes it is hard to focus on Jesus". I also loved watching Uctdorf's talk in ASL. It was cool to see how it was shown the difference between being forced and bent to be obedient versus when we choose ourselves to be obedient. 

Well.. I hope you all are doing great and enjoyed general conference too! I love you all!

Truly yours,

Sister Parker