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I have attached a
couple of photos, courtesy of Sister Chambers. Her son sent them in his email
home today. The one with all four of
them in front of the church building in Tupa is Elder Chambers right next to
Parker and his companion is next to him and then Parkers Companion Elder
Saraiva is on the end..
They all 4 live together. Parker was very close to Elder Chambers in the training
center and so this is a pretty sweet time for them to get to live together.
Mom,
to send packages, send the package to this address but the
other one you can send letters to.
Ana/ Elder Parker
Rua José Keller 751
Conjunto Habatacional Cinquentenário
Tupã- SP
CEP: 17603-480
send me good stuff
for my B- day! :D
hahaha i told i hope dakota liked the letter
jared got a new car? did our family become rich or something?
congrats to linds and jare bare for the new baby coming, i was looking
at the pictures you sent me thinking about how they dont look like a two kid family,
the next day she emailed me saying she was pregnant.
if you
dont get me the info on where elder alex katich is i swear im gonna punch some
random person in the face. why do you tell me tons of stuff like barbeques and
church when i ask for alex katich and what mission hes going to and his
address. Jesus said who amongst you will give your child a stone when he asks
for some bread. quit chucking stones at me and tell me what i want please.
are those
chicks gonna be baptized or what? (John
3:5)
just to give you
some statistics on what i was thrown into here in Tupã, we have over 700 people
baptized in this branch, not ward, but branch, this sunday we had 56 people in
church. visiting teaching and home teachers has been so important to me in my
life. without these two marvelous things that the prophets commanded us to do,
you get situations like this. i saw that the elders quorums made three visits
out of 34 this last month totaling at what about 9%. and everyone just sits and
cries about how everyones going inactive. i never stay in any area for a long
time, the longest arapongas, where i had baptisms lined up for the next month,
now that im here in Tupã, i have a feeling im gonna stay here a long time..
send elder
saraiva a lot of candy, he wants a lot.
we had such a
good baptism this week though, it was a man whose wife and sons had been
baptized 7 years ago. they were really inactive and this man had been to church
a ton. he attended the church for 1 whole year and was never baptized! when he
said that i thought to myself, thats just sick. i hate people that attend
church for a long time and dont get baptized, it eats away at me knowing ive
got someone that does the hardest part but the easiest part of being baptized
he wont do. oh, it kills me. so we passed by there and met a very prideful man
last wednesday, marked the date for the 1st of september. he laughed when i
invited him to be baptized, so i laughed also and said im probably the one
thousandth missionary to mark a baptismal date with you. he laughed and said
every missionary thats passed through here the past 7 years. then i said, give
us one week and by the end of it, youll be asking us to baptize you. haha i
really said that. i left thinking nothing of it. he probably wont baptize
anyways just another date marked. we passed by there 2 days later to teach him,
and he let his guard down for 1 minute. we got him!!! for one minute he finally
took down that wall of pride he had and told us about how there oldest son
wasnt going down the path he wanted him to. there sons 18 and really rebellious
these days. but he finally let his pride down just for a second, seeing this i
followed the spirit and jumped in there, taught for about 5 minutes about how
the son cannot follow a path that a father did not leave for him. i told him
that his father was never baptized, so why should he have to follow the
commandmets also. i then related it to Jesus and God and explained that
numerous times Jesus says that He only does what His Father wants him to do, He
follows the example of the Father. you could see him opening to, it was so
gooooood! then with the spirit at its strongest i invited him to kneel in the
moment with everyone there and offer a simple prayer and ask God that if he
gets baptized, will his son follow his example and go on the right path also.
(the sons a member already) so everyone knelt, but hes a timid and shy guy,
prideful ya know so he didnt wanna say the prayer out loud. i said just say
that line and then close in the name of Jesus Christ amen. so he said the
prayer. only 3 simple lines. the answer could not have come more powerful. his
wife cried, the member that we brought was crying, i felt like crying. the
spirit was so strong in that one simple prayer. then when we all sat down and
he explained how he knows it was an answer, he looked at us and said, i dont
know how you guys convinced me to get baptized. i said, it was not us, i cannot
change the heart of a man, the spirit did everything. God wants you to be
baptized. and over the next week we passed by there, it was a true joy to see
such a prideful man, become as a little child. slowly by slowly you could see
it in his eyes, a little more meek, a little more humble. by friday night, his
wife still could not believe he was going to be baptized and she asked him, are
you really going to be baptized tomorrow, and he looked at us and said yes. the
day of the baptism he did the interview and after he passed it he came up to me
and asked if i could baptize him. i told that guy after one week hed be asking
me to baptize him. :D
-
Elder Parker
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