The time I got to go to the temple twice in one week!!! Say what?!?!?

Hey Gang! (As one of the ASL elders say ALL the time. Haha)

This week has been such a good week! What is so amazing is that no two weeks ever feel the same to me while being in the ASL branch. There's always variety of people to meet and serve.

Aren't we so cute!!!

Memorial Day was a fun one! That night we went to the Markey's (Aka cutest family ever)! They have one baby girl and they are the sweetest couple! For dinner we had burger salad because Sis. Markey is Gluten free. It was actually really good! Then for desert they made fresh waffles with chocolate sauce and fruit. It was so good! While they were making the fruit, they dropped off their baby onto the couch. She had to sit in between the two of us while we sang to her. We sang all the children's songs we know, including "Wheels on the Bus" and "O Mc Donald". She lasted quite a bit surprisingly! She doesn't like strangers, especially if she can't see her parents. So it was a miracle that she was so content with us while her parents were in the kitchen. For the spiritual thought, Bro. Markey took over. He served a mission in Quebec and learned French. He asked us what our favorite scriptures were and read them in French for us! The coolest thing was him translating what it said in French back into English. It added more meaning to the scriptures!! AWESOME! 

Tuesday was an interesting, but fun day! For the past 2 week-ish a little message appears in our car, "Change oil" when ever we turned it on. So Tuesday was oil change day! The longest part was actually checking in! Haha. For some reason they guy had the hardest time looking up our car to check us in. Once that got done, our car got worked on right away. But... Then the car guy came in and said we needed a new oil change cap because the one on the car is damaged and will strip when he takes it off. He made it sound like we would have to come back another day once we bought a oil drain cap ( they don't carry those at Prep boys apparently haha). Sister Carter and I were thinking the same thing and didn't want to start the WHOLE process again on another day. Together we asked if we could quickly get one across the street at Auto Parts. He said that would work. So we got one and he said that the cap might be too big, but he said he will try. Luckily the cap did work and we were in our way again! Phew!

After our ASL lesson with Brandon we went deaf tracking! We both weren't excited to do so because it was so hot outside! Beore we left, we prayed to get a "miracle lesson" while tracking. Not only did we get one, but two miracle lessons! Also a few people said they had some connections to deaf people, so we gave them a card with our number to pass along to their deaf connection. No one was interested in learning more, but it was a successful tracking with a good word out. 😃 So funny story while teaching! It was kinda scary at the time because the lady was very intimidating, but Sister Carter wanted to have a little fun. So I don't know if anyone has seen "Hello" by Adele with the 2 missionaries singing a parody of it. Well... Sister Carter decided to quote from it and  asked "We were wondering if after dinner you would like to go over our beliefs". Even before we opened our mouths, we knew she was going to say no by the way she crossed her arms and glared at us through the glass screen door. So Sister Carter went for it and quoted part of the song. She of course said "no" in the most intimidating way! So we quickly left her house and moved on! Haha

    Me with Sister Ellsworth and Brimhal

Wednesday just moved like silk! We went to one thing to the next. The best kind of days! We got to do a session at the temple. That was really nice. I feel bad because I sometimes I don't realize how lucky we are to have a temple close by and we get to go every 6 weeks! How the temple is so quitet and peaceful gets me every time! You can really hear your thoughts there and a wonderful place to go and meditate... Even just on the temple grounds! Afterwards we quickly did our weekly planning and went to go help do some service! It was a lady from the YSA Ward who moved up to Rockville area! She is now living just across the street outside of Rockville Ward. I always love it when I get to see Rockville!!! It brings back good memories. She had a ton of help when we got there, so we mostly stayed out of the way until they were ready to drive to her new place. Once there, we were able to help much more by taking things up to her new apartment. Once we got everything up there, we had a blast talking with her sister and brother-in-law.  They work at Boy's Town and shared crazy stories about taking care of teenage boys who got in trouble with the law. So instead of going to jail, they get to live with them and be taught how its like to live in a functional home. The cool thing is that the couple has to be married to be able to do this job. It was fascinating to hear how these boys over time create a strong bond with them when at first they are quite rough around the edges. It was quite motivational and very inspiring to hear how important it is to have a functional home with parents who loves you and will work through things with you when you need help.

On Thursday after our meetings I got to go on exchanges with Sister Mecham! The cool and fun thing is that Sister Mecham and I were roommates for one transfer back in Gaithersburg! We got to stay in my area while Sister Carter went with Sister Mecham's companion. Sister Mecham and I had a great time! We went to go see a less active lady,

Angela, in the nursing home. She's so sweet!

Later that day we had a miracle! Sister Mecham and I went to go see Francia, who is somewhat investigating the church. Her son and daughter-in-law are deaf and are less actives in the ASL branch. We haven't been able to see her since I've been in the ASl branch. When we went up to the door, we saw a man sitting in a chair sleeping. We must of stared at the door and him for about a min. We didn't want to wake him up by knocking at the door, but didn't want to leave either. By God's grace, the man (her husband) woke up. When he did, it wasn't awkward at all. He just apologized for sleeping and said we could knock on the door for his wife. So we knock a few times with no answer... Awkward! Meanwhile Sister Mecham is speaking to Francia's husband in Spanish and buttering him up ,if I say

Sister Mecham and I!

so myself! So then he gets up and goes in the house for us to get his wife!!! Francia let us in and we had a fabulous visit with her! She says she would love to come to church, but she works on Sundays right when all the normal church times are! 😥 It was a fun visit though and it was great to feel and hear her amazing testimony!

On Friday we got to meet Jan! This is a cool story! Few weeks ago Sister Carter felt prompted to email one of her friends back home on p day who is serving a mission in Richmond, VA. (We cover only one city in that mission haha) Sister Carter's friend told her that she met a deaf lady up in the Vienna Virginia. Her friend also was able to teach Jan the first lesson. (Sister Carter's friend knows a little ASL). From there, she gave us Jan's contact information to get a hold of her! We learned that Jan isn't really interested learning about our church, but needs a lot of service! She has a cleaning check at the end of the month and her place is... Let's say has collected a lot of things and needs a little TLC. It's not as bad as I have seen in other places, but it needs some work! We were able to stay for a couple of hours and made a small dent. We set up a schedule to see her on Tuesdays and Fridays until her clean checks! Wish us luck that we get everything done and that she will pass!

After Jan's we got stuck in a LOT of traffic on our way to the temple. We got invited to go the the stake temple meeting up on the 7th floor (the top floor of the temple!!!!). We got to the temple just in time to grab some Panda Express and eat 3/4 of it before we went in and grabbed a seat. The meeting was really nice. They talked a lot about the Restoration and why we have temples. It had been raining off and on all day and  a tad bit stormy. A crazy thing happened 10 min into the meeting. The lights flickered and dimmed and finally went completely dark for a few seconds. Luckily the lights came back on as the back up generator kicked in. When they went to turn on the microphone it sounded like a helicopter flying up above of us. I thought we were going to get bombed and die! Haha. Luckily it was just the microphone and we had to do the rest of the meeting without it. It was a miracle for m  because all the 3 speakers spoke loud enough that it sounded like the mic was still on! I knew it wasn't because the person who gave the closing prayer spoke was super quiet. I looked up at Sister Cosper as she interpreted the prayer and she acted like she could hear the whole thing! I asked her how she heard the prayer and she said it was the Spirit! So cool!

Meet Bob!!

Saturday was a fun day! We went to go see Bob and had a really good visit with him. For a long time now we knew we were going to have to pass Bob eventually because he isn't deaf and doesn't  know ASL. We see him every week because 2 of our deaf members takes care of him and his sick wife. So earlier in the week we found our what waird he will be going  to and got a hold of the Elders to tell them about the situation. When we told Bob we wanted him to mee with the Elders next week, he was down for that! What a blessing! I'm excited and a tad nervous for next

week for him to meet the with Elders. I hope this will help him progress and if anything, have a Ward to be friends with and have extra support in his life.  I was happy we got a pic of him together to show you all what this amazing man looks like!

For dinner that night, all of the ASL sisters went to eat at a couple's house from the College Park ward. They want to feed us once a month with the senior sisters in their Ward to help us have more meal appointments. We had a blast over at their house! The husband made AMAZING food for us! We had mushroom pork, Italian chicken, and shrimp

with bay seasoning (It's a MD thing!). They also had AMAZING quinoa..I could have had the whole container! After eating cherry crisps, the husband pulled out some of his hot sauce and vinegar collection. Sister Carter and Sister Cosper were brave and sampled some of his new hot sauces with the husband. Sister Carter and the husband handled it very well! Sister Cosper... Not so much! Haha. I should have taken a video of her reactions. It was so funny! Then I got to taste some of his sweet vinegars. I tried strawberry, raspberry, and chocolate vinegar. My favorite was the raspberry vinegar. It's sad because I couldn't really taste the chocolate vinegar. Everyone said it tasted just like chocolate, but for me it just tasted like the raspberry vinegar. Maybe I'll have try it again next month! Plus, the husband said that next time we come over, we get to try some of his honey collections! Can you tell he's a foodie??? Haha. He said he never uses a recipe because the two times he did it was a failure. I try to ask him what food he made with the recipes, but he said he doesn't remember because he blocked it out of his mind! Haha

Soaked in the rain!!!!

Afterward we went metro contacting at the metro station right next to our apartment. We had a ton of fun! I prayed before we went that we might be able to get a miracle lesson. Boy... Did God deliver! We met David...might have been drunk, but it still counts! He was very talkative and super sweet. Sister Carter talked to him for the most part while I passed out cards to people walking by. At one point David wanted to pray with us so we hold hands and he said a beautiful prayer for us and for himself. My favorite part was when he got teared up and said thank you for stopping by to talk with him. It helped him want to become a better person. I had a glimpse of his spirit coming out of him reaching for our help to find the truth. It made me ponder how many people are like him. Before we left we gave him a Book of Mormon and an invitation to come to church. We have his number to give to the Elders that will be teaching him, so we shall see what happens!

Yesterday was so fun! We almost ran of things to do, so we decided to go metro contacting. It was sprinkling a little and we KNEW it was going to pour down at any moment, but we went anyways. Hehe. On the way there it started to rain harder and harder until finally it hit its peak. We went under cover under one of the benches to wait for a second for people to come by. Two men came walking by quickly and got their attention. They came to us and got to talk for a sec and gave them a card to watch the #hallelujah video. They both were super nice and appreciative. Then we made the trip home in the pouring rain because it wasn't lightening up one bit. We both got soaked and we were laughing all the way! It's a good thing we both love the rain... Especially when it's warm rain! Once we got dried off and got on dry clothes, we started to text past referrals. One of the referrals actually moved to TX! So we looked up the nearest branch in Texas and called the elders up. The Elder who answered was Elder Roberts! He was in the MTC with Sister Carter, but in another ASL district with Sister Kucharek and Cosper. I heard lots of stories about their district, so it was fun to hear his voice. Fun perks in ASL life passing referrals off!

This week is going to be a fun one! Lots of service opportunities and teaching people along the way! I'm excited to keep having miracle lessons and keep meeting new people who has deaf connections! Any way we can the word out that we have a ASL branch and would LOVE to meet them!

I hope you all are doing well and happy!

Until next time!

Sister Parker