Week 59 In Ft. Lauderdale....

This was the only transfer call that I was sure that I knew what was going to happen. There were 4 of us in the apartment I had been here the longest. I was positive that Elder U****** would stay because this will be his last transfer and I figured Elder A******* would stay because this would be his greenie break, and I thought I was bouncing and Elder W****** was staying because someone had to stay! But NO Elder U******, W****** and I all are leaving! That means that Elder A******* is going to have to tell everyone what the Heaven is going on! And where everything is!

It is a weird feeling getting white washed... You know it is not because you did anything wrong it just feels that way a little​... I know its just that the Lord needs us some place else but I am not sure why... but I guess I will go where you want me to go dear Lord but I am excited and SAD to leave this area there are alot of people that I have fallen in love with here, the Espinoza Family, the Ramos Family, the Best Family, Milagros Family, Villate Family, Perez family and MANY MORE, I will definitely will be coming back to visit these people!

This week at the beginning, Elder W****** and I realized that we were in a finding slump. So we decided  that we needed to shoot big! none of this little solo investigator stuff, We be in the business of Families! And so that is what we started our we out looking for we wanted to find 2 families of 3 by Wednesday. We realized one way to do this was to look for and get involved in Part-member families and we found 1 BIG one on Tuesday of 5! then after we net with them I remembered a potential with a Big family we go visit him Boom! another family of 6 wanting to go to church and get Baptized! then as we are out harvesting and we met The Milagros family a family of 4! and there is still the Ramos family of 7 we have a here 1 Jessica on here own, 2 Robin and Kristina together, 3 at the Giler home, 4 at the Milagros, 5 at the Perez home, 6 with the Milnor's, and 7 at the Ramos! WHAT 1,2,3,4,5,6,7 that's alot and they are all incredible! That means there are 28 individual people, that Elder W****** and I get to write Notes about to the New Missionaries here so that they do not get lost. Because this is SOUL SAVING not Soul Losing.

Well that is about all that is going on here I am going to visit as many of them as I can today to prep them for the change.

anyway

Stay strong, Push on

Elder Parque

Week 58 In Ft. Lauderdale....

Here I am!

Mom, You need to make rootbeer... you guys will love this.

5-6 gallons of water

4 lbs of sweetener

6 oz rootbeer extract

7lbs of dry ice

mix it all together til the sweetener is gone then add the dry ice and let it sit for an hour fogging and "boiling" DONT put the lid on (DUH)

thats what we did halloween night.

Apparently, we have deprived our children of homemade rootbeer. We made a at lots of YM/YW Activities when Ryan and I were kids. Now I feel bad. We will need to make some with Leah and Garret.

Our ward had having a "Harvest Festival​" the day after Halloween, there was a pumpkin carving contest. I thought since we had to be home by 7pm on Halloween that I would carve a pumpkin for the contest... THERE WERE NO PUMPKINS ANYWHERE and so my dreams were squashed, but that was ok we ended up spending the night throwing stuff at Elder W******...

This week was a bit difficult we blessed a lot of people but... Nobody wanted to see us again. So we decided to just go talk to a bunch of our Part-member families this week and low and behold, we now have a ton of appointments for the next few days! Ladies with non-member husbands be wantin us around for dayz!

The ward Festival was really good we had a ton of Less-Actives and Non-members there and the Ramos family kids came too, slow but continuous progress with them. But all in all this was a slower week not alot went on, mainly because not alot of people wanted us to teach them but we are trying really hard this week to fix that and make it better. This week my studies have been a bit weird... I started seeing numbers and stuff! 7s,70 times 7, 12, 14, 144000, 3 and all kinds of colors and what knot White, purple, blue, Light, Dark, Black. And I realized that These things are all symbolic and represent much much more than what they appear. I felt all Davinci Code like.

But what I learned was about how much information there is in the scriptures and how the Lord wants us to find it so that we can return to him. That was really what I have leaned this week is that there is so much in the scriptures that we can never take it all in BUT that we must try!

Another thing that I learned was actually similar to what Dad noticed in sacrament meeting. Dad said; "A bunch of kids were getting up to bear their testimonies...but today I noticed something. EVERY ONE of the said “I like to bear me testimony…”. It struck me, most adults say, “I would like to bear…”. How cool that the kids LIKE to bear their testimonies. Even though I’m sure they don’t do it intentionally, how awesome will it be if they always “LIKE” to bear their testimonies and how great the missionaries they will be." I realized that there is a kind of un-said truth that if we all look at it will see where we need to change. You see sadly we don't often "LOVE" sacred or churchy things, we appreciate them and know that they are true, but because they are true causes some slight inconveniences of to some people large inconveniences. To most of us it is "our duty" to go to church, serve our callings, share the gospel. We do it because we know that we should, it becomes part of a checklist of items to do, I AM NOT SAYING THIS IS A BAD THING, because at least we KNOW  that it is true and are doing the things that we are required, but are we doing it out of love? Do we love the things of the Lord? Or are we doing them because we know we need to? I had this realization recently, I often have said "I didn't enjoy going to church before my mission" or something along those lines, and now I am starting to really love it and enjoy my time at church, now I am trying to learn to love the rest I KNOW that it is true now I am working on loving it. That is what I have learned this week, that I need to LOVE the Gospel and ALL of it to have it make a TRUE difference in my life and I challenge all of you to do the same! learn to LOVE the Gospel!

Stay Strong and Push ON!

ELDER PARQUE

Week 57 In Ft. Lauderdale....

The Devil went down to FLORIDA and he was lookin for a missionary to stopa, he was in a bind because a this time. the missionaries were doin a lota.

and so he picked me...

This week was a great week until Wednesday... We used up the last of our miles on Wednesday and so Thursday meant it was a bike day. But we were smart during weekly planning we called a member and he was willing to give us a ride to our first appointment which was about a 30 min ride on bike. So after our appointment I jump on my merry little bike and pedal away for the day. and as I am going to make a turn in front of a fence... I reach for my brakes and pull... nothing... BASH right into the fence... I was furious... Brakes GONE... then as I am looking I see the back wheel is squiggly because of a broken spoke so all in all I am out of luck... See another Elder in our apartment had been having a few issues with he bike so I let him use mine til he fixed his... well he had forgot to tell me my brakes were almost gone and that he had started to hear a click and chirp in the back...  this is what happens when you are nice!

oh and did I tell you that it was POURING THE WHOLE TIME? not raining, NO it was as if the entire Gulf of Mexico was over our heads and kept falling on us repeatedly. My BONES were wet! that's how soaked I was!

so what do we have to do? Walk home... In the rain... so after that wonderful trek back home we dry up and call one of our APs to see if he had any solutions (give us 15 miles so we can got to the bike shop, quick easy problems would have been solved) he was busy so his suggestion? Ride the bus... it was 5pm by the time were caught the Bus nearest us at 5:45pm and rode to our appointment we would have had and 30min to teach them and catch the circle bus that goes up and around and goes back to our home AND WE STILL WOULD HAVE HAD A BROKEN BIKE THE NEXT DAY! So I ignore that advice and call our Zone Leaders, and get some good advice they would becoming down the next day, so they brought me one of their bikes and helped us calm down they are great guys.

 ANYWAY I WAS FURIOUS still  am a little.

The next day wasn't to much better, so members needed our help unloading a uhaul truck into a storage unit ant 1000am and they could not give us a ride because there was no room in the truck and they were taking the bus back... oh it was STILL FREAKING RAINING!!! and when we get there all we do is stand around and wait for them for 20min then move 4 mattresses and they say "now we will give ya'll a break..." we told him we didn't have a lot of time and we would rather just move the stuff and he said well "I need a break, but you guys can go now we really only needed help with the beds..." oh and the Beds STUNK and were greasy bleh!... not the cleanest family... BLEH!!! so then we bike back home in the rain after doing NOTHING!!!!

So you can see that I kinda had some set backs in the whole "Becoming an Angel" thing... you see there is more to that then scripture study and... well I missed in on the whole be patient and long-suffering part... I kinda ranted and raved and raged and reviled and rattled until I was blue in the face then I got over it... but lets just say it was not my shining moment.

Other than that Good things are happening with the Ramos family! We finally got the father to church and now are working on getting them to really work towards a date. They are making friends in the Ward and they got invited and went to a members Block party and are excited about the Ward's Harvest Festival the day after Halloween. Good things! We have found a few new people and are trying to help them build their desires, I yelled at a thug dude named Sergio about how he needs to fix his screwed up life so that his kids don't end up in the same hole he is in... I literally heard a voice keep whispering in my ear "louder" and "bolder" to the point were I told him "enough excuses! God's telling you to fix this! this is an opportunity! TAKE IT!" and it worked... A lot... he said thanks I will but you gotta help me so we are going to... So hey the spirit speaks...

Anyway LOVE Y'ALL

Stay Strong Push On

Elder Parque

Our continued email conversation:

E. Park:

we are looking right now for a Pastor or Preacher to convert and teach his congregations

Me:

Good plan! Any of them in the near future?

E. Park:

not yet but close we are working with this chill dude that's a deacon in his church... he was amazed when we told him that we were deacons​ when we were 12.

Me:

Haha! That’s awesome!

Speaking of… About 2 weeks ago, one of the Deacons dropped his water tray. He bent down, picked up the tray and left all the cups all over the floor. He was so embarrassed, he just went to the back of the Chapel and stood in line. Cute Jacob W****** walked over and picked them all up. 

E. Park:

he's a good kid... how are they doing? hows Syds mission?

Scotts nearing his return isn't he​?

And the Wells girl?

Whats Dallin up to?

and Will?

 Me:

They are doing great. Kelsey was accepted to some Fancy Artsy Fartsy High School in the St. George area, so she moved down there with her Gparents in early Sept. Syd is doing fabulous! She is a Trainer Missionary and she is loving it. In her Blog from yesterday, she is saying that she has not been happier in her whole mission! She is loving the area and the people. She will be coming home in April.

Nikki Wells will be finishing her mission in December. She is in Okinawa right now and has absolutely loved working there. .

Scott and Dallin are going to be home in January. I can’t believe they are getting ready to come home! They are both only going to be home for a day or so, then off to school. They are both seeing great success in their areas. Scott runs in to funny crazy people and Dallin runs in to scary crazy gang people.  Crazy people everywhere!

Will just got to Texas last week. He is very gung ho and excited to be there. 

E. Park:

And here I am ranting and raving over Rain and a Bike... I do Love it here and would not trade this for anything in the world, the people here are so interesting and unusual...