The time we walked through a graveyard! 💀👻

Jan at the visitor center!

I can parallel park! 

Happy 4th of July USA!💥

I hope everyone is doing something fun for the 4th of July! I know I am! We are going to a party at our Branch President's house, then to the Zoo, then watch fireworks at the National Harbor! Yay! This week wasn't too bad of a week. It was a little slower than normal, but that's ok because this week we have a lot more appointments set up!

On Tuesday, I had the most craziest exchange I ever had! I went with Sister Fransworth, who is my roommate and is in her 2nd week of her mission! We went to her area in Capital Heights. The most frustrating thing was not being able to park at the church's underground parking because of this STUPID white van! It was literally parked RIGHT where we needed to turn into the garage. And... It didn't move until 8:20 pm. Because of this I had to park on the street! Parallel parking.... In the city! Man that was tough! But... I nailed it by backing up into the spot! It was so beautiful, we had to take a selfie with it! The highest point of the day was seeing Michael! I met him a few months ago on exchanges and he still remembered me! We got him on a baptism date and it was awesome! Sister Farnsworth and I make a great team!

LaFawn Smith!

On Wednesday, we went to the temple and it was so nice! Sister Cooke was suppose to come see us, but she was so busy. She had to prepare dropping her son off at the Naval Academy the next morning and then pick up President and Sister Johnson that afternoon! So Sister Cooke kinda had her plate full. It was kinda sad not to say our final goodbyes. But we will see them around when they come back from their vacation! 😃

Friday was President and Sister Johnson's first day in the mission!!! I'm sooooo excited to meet them this week at Zone Conference! We heard President Johnson's voice yesterday in a voicemail sent to everyone explaining the rules for the 4th. He sounds REALLY nice and funny!

Anyways... We met Jan and her friend, who is a member, at the temple visitor center. The lesson went pretty well. Kathleen, the friend, was so cute! She didn't know any signs so she would tell us what to say next! haha! Like inviting her to church or talking about a different subject to keep us on track. Jan was a tad resistant I felt, but we were able to each as much as we could sitting. She said she would like to come back to the visitor center and even come to church sometime! Our next step is to get a branch member with us to help us teach Jan! On the way out I saw Sister Smith (LaFawn Smith!!!) from the Hazeldale Ward! That was so fun to chat with her real quick!

Saturday turned out to be a fun and tiring day! So story real quick! 2 months ago we been in contact with Ernest and he told us that he was moving on July 2nd. He told us we could come and help with the Elders with the moving. Fast forward to 2 weeks ago until now... We kept trying to call him and VP him (VP is like Skype), but NO answer! We decided to exercise our faith and go anyways. So we went and called the Elders to see where they were at.... There was a miscommunication... Because the Elders were still at home! Haha. We went ahead and knocked on the door, but

no one answered. We called the Elders and told them that no one answered the door. 

They said they still wanted to come anyways, so we went to a fancy and HUGE graveyard near by to wait for them. We had a fun time walking and seeing all the different head stones. There were so many different kinds! We even found ones that you would see in a hunted mansion or on Once Upon a Time! All I can say is... I prefer people be buried under ground! Haha. While walking through, we realized the biggest difference from UT cemeteries and DC cemeteries. The gravestones in UT has pictures of temples while this one had crosses EVERYWHERE! It was neat to see how the temple is another symbol of eternity because families are sealed/connected by temples!

Once the Elders came we went back and tried to knock on the door... No answer 😟.  When we went back down the steps, Ernest's neighbor stopped us and told us that they moved 6 days ago! I'm so glad they told us that so we wouldn't have to worry when Ernest moved. So we are going to keep trying to contact him until he answers back! The rest of the day was checking up on less actives, tracking, trying to find a past investigator that probably moved, and lots of driving! It was a great day!

Yesterday was a crazy day at church! We had SO many visitors come from other deaf groups in VA and up in northern MD. It was fun to chat with some of them and get to know them a little bit. They came because it was fast Sunday and it's apparently a tradition to come for Fast Sunday and hang out after church for Linger Longer. I hope everyone comes back next month, so I can meet everyone that came!

I hope you all are doing well! I love you very much! The church is true and what a blessing it has been to my life! I would be so lost without it!

Much love!

Sister Parker