Letter to Dad and then Mom
thanks for all the updates dad, its nice to hear how the family is doing. im sure in moms email she will talk a ton about the grankids staying over. the doughnut meeting haha, try doing that here in brazil. i still dont know why they cant just have a regular meeting later in the afternoon, americans are crazy.
we got hit with some opposition this week. man o man never in my life have i ever felt the presences of both sides working. we had 4 people to baptize this week, 3 brothers of one family and another teenager who is the brother of the kid we baptized last week. the mom of those 3 boys talked to her paster this wednesday, so you know how thatll go, and if that wasnt enough she had a lady that she works with that we almost baptized but she wouldnt accept tithing as a commandment so she wasnt baptized and she is a real ghetto woman, so shes screamed it on all the housetops that the mormons just wanna baptize you so that they recieve ten percent of your money. so you can bet she gave a little sermon to this mother about letting her kids be baptized in this church. so theres 3 that we lost, and we have spent 3 whole weeks teaching them. then this other teenager, his mom and friends talked a ton to him and so he didnt wanna be baptized anymore. i didnt even go to church! i spent 3 hours straight running all over town talking to these people to just be baptized and no one gave in. theres no words to describe the feeling you have the night before when you have 4 people that your gonna baptize the day after, then theres no words to describe how bad you feel when all of them fall. i told myself id give my all to baptize them. i gave everything i had. i only went to church for 10 minutes just to make sure i took the sacrament. i destroyed every doubt or assumption that the mom threw at me, or that the kid said, in the end, fear and pride won this week. my comp elder luchman said to me that i was like a lion, he said that when i was preaching to the mom with everything i had, i gave it all dad, he said that i reminded him of brigham young. we gave everything. but theres still more to give. its funny cause everyone in the branch here knows that i just wanna baptize everyone and so i keep having members come up to me telling me to not resist, through our trials will we reap the blessings after the trials. this has been 3 weeks of just straight trials, i have run from house to house just to give people the proper time i feel they will need to talk out all doubts before baptism and these last 3 weeks we have baptized 1. ive got 8 others that all fell the day OF there baptism! im 1 for 9 right now. im praying like ive never prayed before, i dont know if its because of some sin that i commited in my life or maybe im doing something wrong, or studying wrong, teaching wrong, i just dont know. my zone leader, who is basically the best missionary this mission has ever seen, called me yesterday to tell me that he does not know why i have had so much opposition in my area with my investigators these last couple weeks but he said that i have done everything in my power, and that i did everything right, its just there agency and opposition that have won this battle. it meant a lot to me. but if satan has been trying to get me dissapointed in my work, he has only awaken a beast, never in my life have i ever felt such a passion to come back and give everything ive got. never in my life have i ever felt like this. i dont know how to describe the absolute power that i am feeling in my very being. i cannot resist, i will not resist. theres a story in the book of mormon when nephi and lehi in the book of helaman are missionaries and God tells them that because of there desire to share the gospel is so strong, and that they have endured there trials with such faith, God gives them the power that for everything they say, the spirit will open the hearts of others and testify to them of the truth. i feel a power that only trials such as this can bring. theres a fire that can only be started by these pains. but its not a power of a dominating status, its a humble power, one that can only be from God.
i have been humbled, now its time to start humbling some people. i will baptize weekly.
Mom,
our zone broke the record for baptisms in a month! we have baptized up to 39 until now and we still have 1 more week. were going for 50 in a month. the old record was 28. haha we still have one more week to solidify our names on the londrina brazil mission record books. this is rediculous for any mission, only missions up in the north east of brazil or in manaus do zones baptize up to 50 in a month. man if every zone in our mission was doing this, we would baptize 500 people this month. anything is possible!
next package just throw pictures of hot chicks and reeses pieces in the box. dont mention anything about me being 20... its wierd and i dont like it.right at the point in my mission when i was finally getting things down and i felt like i was a solid instrument in the Lords Hands and i was just ready to be used things have changed. these last couple weeks have been humbling. i believe the Lord of the harvest has used these last couple weeks to refine His tools, before he begins the harvest. the field is white already to harvest, and lo, he that thrustheth in his sickle with his might, the same layeht up in store that he perisheth not, but bringeth salvation to his soul.
the field is white, but the sickle has been underneath maitenence these last couple weeks. the Lord of the harvest did not feel it was ready for such a great work that lies ahead in the coming months. it would be better to take some time off to fine tune the instrument, so that it can make it through the whole harvest, then to use it the whole time and not harvest as much as it could have because of the dull blade. and so it is the same with me, the harvest has approached and i have been humbled, i have been refined. i am now ready to complete the whole harvest. i have been reborn as a missionary. i have certainly learned that our trials only make us stronger, and we have trials so that we may grow, and so i have grown.
- Elder Parker
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