How do you spend your money?

The 6 Elders that live in the house together were given some money. How would you expect 6 young adults to wisely spend that money???

 FIRST: By going to The Cheesecake Factory for lunch.

 SECOND: Eating so much that they get sick.

Is this too much?

I think so...

THIRD: Coming to your senses and going grocery shopping.

Week 84 In Ft. Lauderdale....

May 11, 2015

We had a baptism!! I would send you the picture but I don't have it... I am waiting for it! But that's ok! You'll get it soon. 

That would definitely be a highlight to this week, other great thing happened as well this week we met W***** and M****! They are a young couple that was getting ready to get married, he is form Argentina and she is from Paraguay so they both speak with some sick accents! their double "L" or "ll" is more of a "ja" than a "ya". M**** and W***** also have really good questions as well that are real "Questions of the Soul" and they are easy to find answers in the Book of Mormon. 

But besides that we are spending most of our time searching for more new people we can teach, we had 3 investigators and then we baptized a third of them... so we need to find more!! In fact that's a problem amongst the whole district that we are working on!

Other fun things this week we did a lot of "blitzing" where we meet up at a spot swap companions for a bit and then go out and hit the same area hard, we have seen some miracles doing this (both in English) One was M***, we had a very spiritual prayer with her and then when we invited her to be baptized she said that she already had been, then we asked "Have you been baptized by fire?" and she was like "No but I need that how do I do it?" and we said, "by the laying on of hands Acts chapter 8" then she was SO down!! So boom.

Then we had the same experience with another man named M******, but with that one we asked him so go get his bible and while he was in the house we joked "what if he brings out a New World Translation and it ruins everything." AND AS SOON AS WE SAID THAT. He walks out and places in Elder C. T*****'s have a nice grey leather bound... New World Translation.... I ALMOST laughed but I contained my self and then proof read the story before I let him read it. It worked but I am bringing him a new bible that is easier to understand.

Any way that was our week!! I hope it was fun to read...

STAY STRONG!! PUSH ON!!!
Elder Parque!!

Week 83 In Ft. Lauderdale....

April 28, 2015

Well there you'll never guess what other wishes of mine were finally granted this transfer!!! I am in a Spanish BRANCH!!! Brand new it just got created 2 weeks ago, we don't even have all the records moved over yet the list shows 20 people but about 52 showed up for church, and apparently there are a ton of less actives that are only less active because there was never a Spanish Branch! SO EVERYBODY IS STOKED OUT OF THEIR MENTES!!! And so am I!

My companions name is... Elder Brown... That's the 2nd Elder Brown that has been my companion and the 3rd I have lived with. He is originally from Massachusetts, but moved to Idaho a few years ago, where he met the church. He started to do some reading and the church made more sense to him than any other church and more than that he says he felt the spirit. He has been a member for just a few months under a year now. He is a very smart individual and he knows a lot more Spanish that I did when I left the MTC. 

The area is huge!! so (unfortunately) we have a car, currently with no mile limit (that IS fortunate). When we got here we decided that we needed to meet all the current leaders of the Branch so naturally we started with the Branch President, We go over and he had invited his 1st counselor and his non-member Mother, we ate with them and... invited the mother (Yolanda) to be baptized... and she accepted... for Mothers Day!!! BAUTISMO!!! MILAGRO!!! Then we invited another Part-Member family to come to church and... THEY DID!!! Her Husband (the non-member) got super confused in priesthood (we have a bunch of High Priests) so he asked a ton of questions and then found out about foot notes and whatnot and BOOM now he is interested!! Boom meal and a lesson today!! 

Since the area is super spread out, and there aren't large complexes (complexi?) of Latins we are going to have to go hard on getting referencias from the members its really going to be the only effective way to make it happen, but we are trying our best to find on our own as well! 

Another thing... una hermana in the branch heard that we were coming so she started a meal calendar... planning on the members feeding us lunch AND dinner EVERYDAY... I will get fat... and its not a bike area... PERO esta bien porque, it tastes really good!! We also have a Brazilian Branch in our building so there's a chance we can get some of that too!!

So YEAH super stoked!!

Stay Strong Push on!!!

Elder Parque!!!

Week 82 In Ft. Lauderdale....

April 28, 2015

So this information overshadows all other information, slightly just because of how excited I am to TRAIN, that means I am going someplace I know nothing about to train! BAH!!! Anyway back to the week.
  

Hey! What is that in the road up ahead?

Well Monday started off real good with a call from Jupiter North telling us Jupiter South was going to kill one another. Emergency exchange! What a great way to start the week. The difficulty of the Ft. Meyers stake entering the mission is still causing some contention. So we had to put that fire out.

Then we tried to proselyte the rest of the week we got plenty done up in Pahokee, but no one from that area was able to come to church but we were able to get Eddie and Henderson to church so that was good.

Saturday was a busy day we had a ward service project cleaning a soup kitchen in Belle Glade... lets say that they hadn't done a deep cleaning in a long time when you would wring a rag out it looked like soy sauce... And there were so many people cleaning different things at different times that we got in each others way! And there were way to many people that thought that they needed to be in charge. I came out of there looking like I took the mess with me on my clothes, my blue jeans looked black!

Yup.... It's a dead alligator...

Then after the Project at the church we had a catfish fry... These southern bred folks know how to have a fry party! We had Fried Fish, Fried Pickles, Hush-Puppies (they were the bomb), Fried onion, Funnel cake, fried potatoes, and fried green tomatoes... everything was golden brown and delicious!

When it comes to my studies this week I learned about the importance of Listening, and the importance of Catching the Vision. Look at Laman and Lemuel they did everything that their father told them but they did not catch his vision of the blessings, of eternal life and the promised land. Therefore they learned little and grew little on their journey. It is the same with us, we may not like where things are going but if we stop and look at the bigger picture then we can catch the blessings that come by following inspired guidance.

LOVE YOU ALL

Stay Strong, Push On!!

Elder Parque!

Week 81 In Ft. Lauderdale....

April 20, 2015

Well this week was just as busy as last, in fact I think every week is very busy, and you know I think that I like being busy. Life is easier when you have things to do, you don't have time to worry! This week I went on 2 exchanges where I stayed in the area... do you know how hard it is to plan a day in Belle Glade with out Creole? Its like trying to push water back in the faucet. But it made the day fun I used some good old sign language.

We have been working a lot in a town a little North of Belle Glade named Pahokee, if anyone can tell me that means in some Indian language that would be nice. Pahokee is a pretty sketchy place, its a weird cross of backwoods hick and ghetto thug (we don't walk around with much money in our pockets) but so far the people have been really nice and have been really accepting. Our biggest problem is convincing them to drive to Belle Glade. 

On our way to Pahokee one day we decided to take a different route through the fields and we came across a hidden trailer-park filled with... MEXICAN FAMILIES!!! And really good families! The kind that go on walks! And the Dads play soccer with the kids!!! We knocked 6 doors and found 5 families! And the families all knew each other and when we went back to teach one family with plans to see the others after, the others saw us and came over! We were teaching a class! There were 12 of them. So I had some fun!

But as for other details I went on an exchange with the assistants and learned a lot about Administering and Ministering, they are different. We did a service project repairing a deck... the other three missionaries are not so handy, but they learned. I sure am thankful for the things I learned around the house and the fact that Dad taught us how to solve problems and work.

I don't really know what else but I love ya'll!!

Stay Strong, Push On

Elder Parque

Week 80 In Ft. Lauderdale....

April 13, 2015

Yes, My Companion  is "That Guy"

Well this was a week... A LOT... and I mean a whole freaking ton of crap happened...

Just so that I can give you a quick overview, Monday- Zone activity P-day, Tuesday-Interviews with President, Wednesday- Zone Training exchange, Thursday un-exchange a find out we are going to the temple, Friday-TEMPLE, Saturday- get home from temple late... Sunday- Church and Stake Presidency meetings... EVERY DAY was filled with adventure!!

First off, I got some letters saying that I sounded "down" last week... I was not... I had had a very exhausting week and was trying to email with 10 other missionaries in the same room... I was a little distracted. Last week was incredible! Last month our mission had the most baptisms that we have had since President Richardson got here and it was exhausting (and rewarding) work to push as hard as we all did! SO NO I AM NOT DISCOURAGED NOR SAD!!! I am ELDERPARK!

We will put that a side for now and I will tell you that this week was the happiest and the saddest week of my mission. It was a freaking roller coaster. I felt like a 12 year old girl... My emotions were so freaking high!

We had interviews with President Richardson on Tuesday, we were also expected to had a District Leadership Training the same day. Which meant that we needed to be in Wellington at 4:30pm and leave Belle Glade at 3:00pm (that's 1500 hrs mom). Does anyone know how effective the hours from noon to 3 are in Belle Glade? 90% of the population is out in the fields at that time pickin' corn! NO ONE IS HOME. Anyway we tried our best and then left for Wellington, we had a great DLT (ending at 5:00pm or 1700) We then proceeded to wait for our turn... Interviews are supposed to be 15 minutes... President NEVER only takes 15 minutes! Our interviews were scheduled to be at 630pm and 645pm with me going first I didn't start my interview until 745pm... Now the whole scheduling thing and time crunch were not the stressful parts of the day. President decided that these interviews would be us interviewing or asking him questions... But gosh dang it he sure pushed towards his own direction! Man I had a specific agenda I wanted to talk about, but no he had to talk about completely other things that I hadn't intended. I swear his purpose was to make me tear up! But it was a very spiritual experience and I learned a lot.

Well with that over we started out on Wednesday with Zone Training, that went really well, we shared everything that we had been given in MLC the week prior. But after when everyone came back to the church for lunch, we found out that one of the Sisters in our zones back problems had been worsening, but we didn't think much about that. After lunch I headed to Jupiter North on exchange with my new bike I bought a helmet when we got there but they didn't have a good lock so I borrowed another Elders. On the exchange we had some very spiritual experiences, and we were definitely in the right place at the right time.

Thursday was a pretty normal day, other than we found out that we were going to go to the Temple Friday night with one of Elder F******' converts in Ft. Laud.

Friday we prepared to the temple and right as we are about to leave we get a text from the sister's stating that the sister with back problems will be going home... YOU DON'T JUST TEXT THAT!! So we called them and had a big chat and found out that she will be going home for surgery and that she will be leaving Tuesday (tomorrow). That was not a happy moment right before we go to the temple, but luckily we had a missionary in our zone who had gone home for surgery and returned so we had him call her and calm her fears. And the we were off to the temple, since it was a 730 session we would not have been able to make it back to Belle Glade at a reasonable hour, so we spent the night with some missionaries in Ft. Lauderdale. It was a great experience to go back again and I learned a lot!

Saturday was just flat busy trying to get home and round people up for church.

Sunday right after church we had to head to a stake meeting in Jupiter (hour drive) with the Stake President and President Richardson... That was an interesting meeting... Basically it is us telling the stake president what the wards need to do better... Its a great learning experience and it is full of opportunities that help you understand how the church works.

But let me tell you that basically everything that happened this week taught me about to things that I thought were the same but are not, Ministering and Administering, a good leader understands that both are key to creating growth and improvement. They are different but essential and necessary. And just these meetings this week I know have helped me prepare better to serve the Lord in whatever capacity He needs of me. I don't know why I had these experiences but I know they were all important.

Anyway I love you and miss y'all

Stay Strong, Push ON!!

ELDER PARQUE

Week 79 In Ft. Lauderdale....

April 6, 2015

Got the bike its the same model but a year or two newer and it looks sick! But I now need to get a new lock and helmet. but that's ok

We baptized on Tuesday this week. We had set a goal for 5 baptisms this month and on the 31st we achieved our goal with 2 incredible young men! A*** and J****** J***. stellar Haitian youth. Did you hear about the temple in Haiti.

Easter we just watched conference! that was BOSS

Well this week started off big! We had the baptism of Andy and Johnson Jean on Tuesday and they were baptized by their neighbor and recent convert L******* A*****. It was really good and it gave a huge boost to the Young Men's program! And their mother (the lady in the picture) now wants to be baptized as well and we are working with her!

Yeah, just our new ride....

Then we went to a 7-hour missionary leadership meeting in Ft. Lauderdale with the Global Director of Proselyting. And receive a TRUCK load of information teaching us how to really be missionaries. 

We also have been instructed on how to plan better, its worth taking more time to plan than to go out unprepared!

Then of course on Saturday and Sunday we spent the combined 10 hours in the branch building watching conference!

But for the most part that was our week, VERY busy but not very exciting!

LOVE YOU 

STAY STRONG and PUSH ON!!
Elder Parque!