Face to Face with Christ and still Deny!!! Wow

Mom,

    sounds like this was a busy week for all of you back home.

   we baptized the wife (elderly couple they were teaching last week) cause the husband is being really stubborn. there from another church and he has a calling as the deacon of there church so he thinks that he has the priesthood and that he was baptized by someone with authority. so we showed him in the bible that he actually wasnt and that he actually doesnt have any authority and so hes been really angry with us ever since, he didnt even come to her baptism. he just scared of what all his evangelical friends will think of him when he switches churches. get this, i invited him to be baptized when he recieves an answer from praying and he said i dont need to recieve an answer i already did. i asked him how the answer was. he explained that he read the parts in the book of mormon we marked, with his wife and then after  they kneeled and prayed together and asked God if these things are true. he said it was just a normal prayer then they went to sleep but while he was sleeping he said that he had a dream that he was standing in an open field and Jesus Christ walked up to him and told him face to face that he should be baptized and this is the right path for him in his life. then he looked at me and said, but im not going to follow this answer i received. 

    you see the levels of pride hear. you have the wife, who actually never recieved a solid answer, she just says that theres no way to deny that its true, she says she just feels its true, then you have the husband who recieves an actual answer, and not some small answer he even said to us, i take it as if Jesus Christ spoke with me face to face it was so real, and he still wont follow the answer. he cares more about what his friends think of him then his own Savior Jesus Christ. good example to me in my life how pride makes you a fool. good thing shes got a humble heart though. but were not done with him yet, im still gonna baptize him.

     Some people get scared of the baptismal invite from the missionaries. thats why we challenge people to be baptized in the first lesson, so we can know if they are really in this to better there lives or if they just want to waste the Lords time.

    they changed the age limit for missionaries to go on missions to 18 so tell landon he can go on a mission now when your in utah.

      transfers are next week so dont send anything, next monday i should know if im staying here or if im going away.

    also im starting my Christmas list right now, i want an Adventure time shirt in my Christmas package. its a show that riley and cambria should know, please get me the shirt.

     i wrote larry a letter like 4 months ago and he still hasnt wrote me back yet. what, costa rican missionaries are cooler or something?

                                   - ELder Parker

thanks for the commentary dad,

   actually we had a ward council meeting and it was super needed. the new branch president is really good, he served a mission so he knows what hes doing. he put up all the statistics on a chalk board and basically just let the numbers put everyone to shame. they average about 8 home teaching visits a month of the 34 assigned. hes a strong, organized leader. hes areally good fit for the branch.

     i love cambria also, tell her i said she can watch spongebob before i get back, she doesnt have to wait. thats true though that riley is growing up huh, its crazy to think that cambria will be 11 when i get home.. riley better get excited for the basketball season, theres a lot of playing to do. is he playing j.v. this year then, he is a sophomore right? man how time flies, i feel like yesterday i was a sophomore in high school haha. were doing a competition in the mission based off of a point system. for example, 1 baptism is worth 20 points and 1 lesson with member is worth 4 points. things like that, and the zone that wins gets a p-day with president and sister tavares which are always fun. anyways our zone did really well this week so were in 1st place as of now and this is the last week. were ahead by pretty far we just need to seal   the deal with a solid week. its funny though cause the zone of presidente prudente is known as the worst zone in the mission with tupã being one of the worst areas in the mission and everyone cant believe that were in first. guess its not where you are and who your comp is, it depends on how much ya put into it!

       -Elder Parker