Dia Branco (Day White)

o boy did we baptize yesterday!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Dia Branco (day white) was my favorite of the mission so far. our zone baptized 13 people, ive got cool pictures of everyone in white and stuff its awesome! me and elder zioli baptized, man everyone was baptizing it was so cool! our zone baptized 25 this month, thats a new record for this zone and thats the most of any zone this month!!! eu sempre chegei batizando!!! everything was perfect for this day. im starting to feel like im finally becoming an instrument in the Lords Hands that knows how to baptize. use the techniques of baptism!!!!!! me and elder zioli are doing so well together. between us and the zone leaders we made up 18 of those baptisms for this month. Vamos Lá!!!!

miracle alert!!!! was this saturday and we arrived in the house of a member to eat lunch with her. she lives with her sons and she knows its a rule that we cannot enter a house if its only a woman. there needs to be a man of 18 years there also to enter.so we showed up, and because none of her sons were home she invited her nephew lucas, who is 12 to eat with us so we could enter. me and elder zioli were talking to him, he said he never was baptized, we were like, have you ever been to our church on a sunday. rapaz done said he went one time 3 years ago. because someone needs 2  times in the church to be baptized so you can baptize them after the second time ya know. we asked him if he likes coffee, he ssaid he dont like it and that the last time he drank it was 2 weeks ago. because someone cant break the word of wisdom for 4 days before baptism. me and my comp looked at each other and we started laughing and he was laughing to and said why? and we told him, son were gonna baptize you tomorrow. he wwas like ok sounds great. so we said go get your mom. she arrives, (we need the signature to baptize him) so we started off real casual ya know, joking around, spoke nothing of baptism then bam elder zioli hit her with when a kid has desire to follow Jesus Christ you let him follow! and if you dont, youre sinning! and he was like were gonna baptize your kid tomorrow, and she said dont you think this is really really fast and to soon. then i hit her with how Jesus called the two apostles on the boat to follow him. and they followed, never knowing who he was, or why they would follow but they did, and they were apostles! so then i said, its not about how much you know about Jesus but how much desire you have to follow Him. and that the elect will hear His voice and follow, and that your son is an elect, and he wants to follow. you wanna follow Jesus Christ right? YA! YA! YA! lets baptize him. then she, ok. signed the form and it was one more soul, making covenants with Jesus Christ. i love baptism. haha we were dancing in the street after, then dancing in the church before we taught him EVERY lesson in one and a half hours.  miracles miracles miracles.

but seriosly though we taught that lesson really good, used really good techniques. me and elder zioli are becoming really good missionaries. i hope someday i can really become a missionary.

 thats great though that alex wood is serving a mission. one more for team Baptism!!!

i got the pictures, its nice to know how logans family is doing and how nicoles daughter is. i have a feeling ill get the package this week. i hope is the feeling i have.

the only way you could get me to go to bass lake is if i can baptize people while im there

new car huh, blessings from your son serving a mission. so technically its my car, my blessings.

 i love you a ton! thanks for everything, gotta go, I LOVE YOU ALL!!!

                           - Elder Parker

dad,

hahhahahahaha  Cambria  swam 400 laps!! i wonder why she all the sudden got the urge to swim so many!?

forget dance classes get her in swimming huh?

haha i remember my first priesthood blessing, you made me do it again cause i did it wrong. i had no idea what was going on. now im giving random people in brazil blessings, in another language. ah the growth you can acheive with the priesthood!

didnt i always say that me and chad were both called to serve missions. just with different circumstances? haha

ill look into buying some more winter clothes and all, thanks a ton.

yesterday was Dia Branco.(day white) dad our zone baptized 13 people in one day. we broke the record for baptisms in this zone this month. our zone baptized 25, and this is not an easy zone. blessingsssssssssssssss!!!!!!!!!!!

love you aton dad, its nice to hear that logans progressing a lot also. in a short amount of time well all be together on the rod!

Every Member a Missionary

Mom,

did you make me a facebook or no? pleaaaaseeee

dang riley weighs 145 right now, gulp...

ya well next time that lady at the market asks riley if hes a swimmer because his muscles are growing, you can tell her youve got a son thats a swimmer, hes swimming in baptismal fonts all throughout brazil, working out his Priesthood. cause my priesthoods fat son. uh!

 no i havent recieved anything yet, but there postal service doesnt work on saturday or sunday, so probably sometime this week i will. thanks mom. ya im in arapongas, a city right next to apucarana. but my zone is apucarana and we rock!

ya fasting works, my seventh week in the mission, we didnt have a baptism, it was saturday and i was like i need to baptize. fasted, went to this old investigators house, i was like, ay will you be baptized tomorrow, he said what time tomorrow. chuch is true, fasting is powerful.

actually i fasted if we could take 25 people to church this sunday. so did elder zioli, we brought 17, thats pretty dang good i think, lets baptize 5 of em for DIA BRANCO this sunday. i cant waith till you see the picture. gonna be like 40 people dressed in white, baptizers and people going to be baptized.

 man i was thinking about that the other day, koty will have graduated, ill be twenty one and riley will be a junior. im gettin old. elder zioli turns 20 this month. yikes! thats me in september.

i cant wait till someday my daughter brings me breakfast in bed. the only times i get trunky on the mission is when i see and joke around with little kids, i just want a family. but the mission is a fair trade.

my health is fairly good, if i eat stuff thats high in fats, then theres a pretty high possibility ill throw it up and have a lot of pain. but im learning my limits. like this week, the argentinian made some food for us, i didnt know what it was, i just ate, i woke up that night throwing up. im learning. learning to never trust argentinians.

    i liked those stories of kayson, haha thanks for making me trunky knowing that lindsey and jared are living what i want most in my life. youre the best mom ever. haha im joking, the stories were really funny. haha kayson is funny. thanks for everything mom, love you a ton. send my love to the rest of the family.

   -Elder Parker

HAPPY FATHERS DAY DAD!!!!!!!!!!!!

 i think fathers day here is in july.

ya if you could send me an update every week thatd be great. i didnt know it was costing me money just to check.

no we didnt baptize anyone this week but we almost had a miracle. we just coulndt get a ride from a member to get to his house, so we didnt have a chance to talk to him. would have been a miracle, but thats how miracles happen, its not just faith but works. the member didnt give us a ride, so he didnt show his works, therefore not showing his faith. but as of now for next week weve got 3 possibilites to baptize. one being a man so thats good. hes firm too, he thanks God in his prayers for the opportunity to be baptized again by someone that has the authority when he prays with us, so i think hes pretty firm on his baptism this sunday. crazy to think, last thursday, he was just a guy we talked to on the street who had never heard of the true church. 5 days later and he cant wait to be baptized. so weere pretty excited right now.

 did you know that elder clevelands mission is the highest baptizing mission in south america. considering the fact also that south american missions baptize the most, im guessing its the highest baptizing misson in the world. crazy huh, hes probably already baptized around 50 or 60. they have the highest percentage of teaching with membres also. the members are really really strong in sao paulo, the church is growing so fast there. honestly, every part of missionary work is through the members. thats why prophets preach every member a missionary, because without help, its basically just knocking doors, which is very very difficult to find people to baptize. share the gospel with everyone!

i liked that picture of cambria, man shes almost gonna be  a beehive when i get back. crazy stuff. did you know ill be 21 when i get back. crazy stuff.

   LOVE YOU A TON DAD, HAPPY FATHERS DAY

                - Elder Parker

Sick again! ugh!!!

Date: June 11, 2012

Area: Arapongas

Companion: Elder Zioli

Mom,

  im gonna try and call the elders in londrina and see if they got the package you sent and tell them to get it to the zone leaders because they have a conference tomorrow until wednesday and im gonna see if my district leader cant bring it back home to me. hopefully they have it. were pretty excited to recieve it over here. no everythings fine with the other package to sister luzia she knows what to do and ill talk to her. speaking of sister luzia she gave us lunch on tuesday, we ate a bunch cause she cooks really good. by the end of that day, out of us 4 missionaries, two had thrown up, and the other, elder zioli had a pretty high fever. the only one that didnt get sick was the argentinian. we stayed sick for about 3 days this week. one day we all actually just stayed inside the house. ive never stayed inside the house for a sickness but it all the sudden got colder then the dickens here and we all had fevers so it was terrible. anything we ate we threw up me and elder da rita, and elder zioli literally was pooping out straight water for 3 straight days. at one point elder zioli was on the john and elder da rita was throwing up in a bucket we have because he couldnt get into the bathroom, and i was just laying there in my bed, feeling like i was in the artic, but also feeling like i was on fire, and i thought to myself, now these are the moments you just dont wanna remember from the mission. now that its over its hilarious but at the time, 3 guys all in one room either throwing up, or diarring was so terrible. but we recovered. and the day we recovered, we had lunch with sister luzia again. we were all terrified. we considered not showing up, but we have no where else wed eat for the day. but all was well. i dont know what she did to that other meal, but foods never done anything like that to me in my life. but ya luzia recieves the packages for us. and poisons us

.

we baptized a young man named antonio, a miracle for not working at all huh :)

ya when i was in elder petersens area working with him, everybody used to tell us that we were brothers. we get it a lot. and i told you i was a cowboy. even in brazil.

hey please make me a facebook. i have tons of people im not gonna remember to search after the mission and they want to send me an invite and you can just accept them for me. but be careful, if people from my high school try to send me friend requests and youve never met em, deny em. theres a reason why i deleted my facebook in the first place. tons of annoying people always blowin up that one wall with stupid stories from there life, or lines from songs that only they like. o guy, or when people break up with someone, thats when i knew i couldnt have a facebook anymore. if peeps start doing that stuff again, delete them from my friends list. but ya please make me a facebook. under the name Elder Parker Bennett. so i can keep in touch with my beloved ones here in brazil. and send me pics of my baptism over that missionties thing also please. its a good technique to baptize people. especially children. hehehe ill baptize anyone up in this piece.

well our zones the highest baptizing in the mission right now so thats cool. weve got more baptisms then days at this point and i and elder zioli have more baptisms then weeks together. so as of now, its a successful transfer so far. :) hes like this brazilian californian surfer dude thats way chillaxed.the other day when i got mad about one of our investigator we had he said, dude sometimes we need to just be like hippies. in english also, he speaks suprisingly well.

manaus recieved a temple this week which is really cool. got to watch the dedication and everything and it was really spiritual. the people of manaus are a really special people. i hope someday that londrina can recieve a temple. probably 20 or 30 years from now but i cant wait!!!

on the 24 of june, so next sunday our zone is having WHITE DAY. its our district conference, or stake conference, so were having all the missionaries in our zone, baptize at the least two people, but its gonna be filmed lived and watched during district conference. how cool is that!!!!!!!!!!!! its gonna inspire everyone in the district, and for me and Elder zioli, were gonna let all our recent converts that willl be recieving the aaronic priesthood baptize them. so were trying to work really hard with recent converts and baptize there friends. or have them baptize them. im so stoked! DIA DOS BRANCOS!!! but how cool is that?! thats why brazilian saints are way more cooler then american ones, they actually do missionary work with there friends. but how cool will that be when the whole district watches there friends, baptize other friends that werent members. its gonna inspire everyone. so in our zone, we should be baptizing 20 people that day, at the minimum. im like a little kid on Christmas day! and yes, i am dreaming of a white Christmas... haha get it cause of WHITE DAY and people being baptized and you wear white when your baptized. haha i know, im so gay.

but, I LOVE YOU ALL. your all in prayers and i thank God your all in my life.

- Elder Parker

Dad,

ya i got pierces letter the other day. i already wrote him back but i accidently sent it the long way. the lady said it was a cheaper price so i thought great, i can send it to america for cheaper, but i also found out after that it takes twice as long. so he should be getting a letter back here in about a month. haha sorry. but he enters the ctm in august i think so that should be cool. ill write him while hes there too.

thats good that grandma sent money cause i think im gonna need it. the weather just all the sudden got cold on us. really cold. and our house does not have heating so it gets very very cold. im gonna buy some extra socks and some gloves. thanks grandma!

thats crazy rileys grown 6 inches! schools out too. i remember those days, we dont have those days on the mission haha. just simple things are so good when you are away and working for a long time. my comp got a bag of reeses the other day. the first time ive had reeses in 6 months and it was so good. im gonna miss the lake, beach, and spongebob on summer days with cambria.

thats cool though a sand volleyball camp. that should be fun and help him out a lot.

and finally cambria starts dance class huh? well its about time she started dancing. goodness you and mom have been talking about getting her in dance classes since she was 4. the other day i was thinking about how she almost be a beehive when i return. shell be 11 years old. man i remember when i was 11 and it does not seem like that long ago. boy how time flies. and ill be 21 when i return. well there goes the first quarter of my life huh? my goodness

i see youre still playin ball on wedenesdays, tell the old scooters i said hi.

thats nice that chads prison isnt like a maximum security one, but you can sit outside and talk with him and hug him. must have been a good experience, i hope hes doing better. he wrote me, said hes already read the book of mormon 2 times there. that should help him out a lot.

well i love you dad, thanks for everything, got no complaints, while your heading into sunshine days ill bearing the cold winds, trying to find someone to baptize. but id rather be doing that then sitting in the sun anyways. só batismo. im one more baptism away from making the batizador list. pray that i get a miracle and baptize someone this week please. :)

- Elder Parker

Arapongas (New area)

 my new address is,
Rua Surucua - Açu 308
AP 06 -Vila Araponguinha
Arapongas- PR
86705- 590
Brazil

  Mom,

taylors going to detroit michigan!!!!!!!! thats so crazy! that will be a really ghetto i mean fun mission hahaha.
i hope he baptizes everyone there!! parabens to him
o ya i forgot to mention we got robbed in that last house they broke in and stole our stuff. it happens in ghetto areas. so thats why president took us out. its the second time in two months that the missionaries have been robbed in that area. so president told us that because were american we have to leave, he put two brazilians in there. he told me because of my tall white appearence i was attracting to much attention so itll only be brazilian elders there for a long time. im fine with it, cause here in Arapongas, i have not been asked for money by some crack head bum once, had gay guys tell me im beautiful, been dog called by prostitutes in gross ways, been teaching lessons when some things happen and you just have to get out of there as fast as you can, or been robbed. and i can walk on whatever street i want to here, even at night. God bless Arapongas. its a relatively small city.everybodys really nice and the members are cool. i think im gonna like it here.
my comp is elder zioli. hes cool. hes more california boy then i am. he surfs, skateboards and all that stuff haha. we got along really quick. hes from the west side of sao paulo. hes a chill guy, he speaks english really well out of nowhere so he is always talking in english so i can correct him. but hes a good elder. hes got a nice little relationship going on with this girl from curitiba so i hope she sends me some goodies or something. so i can at least feel like some people havent forgotten about me. his real names gustavo though, i never really did like that name.
 its nice to hear about the progression of tyler haroldsen. hes gonna be a really good missionary. half of baptizing people is just being really excited all the time and never shutting up. i think hes gonna be just fine.
kasey dodge still workin at good ol GNC huh? whens that guy gonna serve a mission?
 richie tore his acl again. that sucks really bad, i feel bad for him cause hes worked so hard to get all jacked and play college ball. hmm leaves a lot of time for him to serve a misson now huh?
   just wanted to let you all know how much i love you. the work is good here in Arapongas. weathers nice, not to hot, a little nipply at night but all n all everything is really nice. ive got an argentian livin in my house now to. haha its funny cause he kinda sucks at portuguese and it makes me feel really good knowing that those days are over. im also learning spanish also from him. who knows, might just come back speaking spanish also.
i finished the book of mormon in portuguese like two weeks ago, forgot to mention that. it was really cool to see my progression with the language and that book. first nephi and second nephi took me about two months to read, but after that, i can read portuguese fluently also. what a blessing the book of mormon is our lives and growth. love you mom, i know your trying with the packages and all and i have faith someday youll get it down. haha kinda like when i first got in the field and i didnt speak the language but i always had to have faith someday i would and my comp had to have faith also that i would too. same thing, im your first missonary so this is your first time having a son in the field and youve just got to have faith that someday youll get it down (packages) and im out here, not so much faith as it is hope and a plead that youll get it down also because im dying but i know you can do it mom!!! your a mom, you can do everything!!!!
     - Elder Parker

 and heres the address in my area of a member here that said shell recieve our packages for us. so for packages send them to this address please

Luzia/ Elder Parker Bennett
Taperaçu 226
Vila Sampaio
Arapongas- PR
86705-540

dad the city ofArapongas is so awesome!!!
 President Tavares spoke to me directly on the phone to let me know that i was being transferred to Arapongas becuase it is the focus of our mission righ tnow. he said that that area in londrina was actually too dangerous for two americans right now so thats why we both got transferred. he said we were calling to much attention especially me so i said im got transferred because i look to american. trouble was happening to much there with people and the missionaries. but he told me that this city is a part of a district that there trying to make into a stake. its close, but needs more men baptized. so he told me i was sent here to build up the stake. we have until september to reactivate and baptize around 100 men who can hold the melkesidek priesthood. weve got alot of work huh...
  anyways when i arrived the zone leaders told us straight up that this was the focus area of the mission and that president told them he sent the best here to build a stake. exactly like he said on the phone to me. i think im here cause i have a high baptize rate for men. anybody 18 or older. thats most of my baptisms anyways is men so i think thats why pres sent me here. this city is nice, the people are nice and the branch here is twice as strong as my last ward i was in. literally, its got twice as many people, and they actually do there callings, cause there is people with callings here haha. anyways me and my comp already just baptized 2 yesterday, one being a man yay. my comp is really good, hes smart about how he works and puts his priorities from according of most needed. hes a smart chap, ive got a feeling were gonna baptize a lot this transfer together. love ya dad thanks for everything.
                            - Elder Parker
 ps 6 months already, goodness gracious next thing ya know ill be walking in the fresno airport. crazy huh. the harder ya work the faster it goes by.
pss i love cambria :)