Sick boy this last week

  

My boy needs letters!!

thanks for the inspiration mom.
alrighty i need some things in this care package youve yet to send. i need the addresses of larry still, brixton, elder urmston and everybody else you might think i need.
i need you to send me memory cards about 3; 4 gigs for for my camera so i can take more pictures, i need memory keys, ya know little 4 gig ones like two or 3
i need pictures of of the family
i sent you a package with the area code 93619. ya i know its wrong but thats because like spongebob ive forgot everything except baptism. please corect it if you can. i gave dad the info.
 send me cds of church music please and also the joseph smith movie thats an hour long please.

and now to the week. so i was sick this week and i went to the doctor. they gave me drugs i dont know whtat they are but they do something to me. i taught a lesson while i was on one of these pills and could not function. they knock me out. i fell asleep during the opening prayer for 2 maybe 3 seconds then when it came my turn to teach i had this scripture in my head i was going to share and then out loud i said another, then when i searched for the scripture i was on the page of the verse but i couldnt find the verse. i was trippin hard mom haha, i started talking because i didnt know what to do, and then no words came to my mind, so i remember looking at the doorknob for a solid 5 second pause and the whole time i was thinking, ´´i dont know whats going on´´ haha after my comp couldnt stop laughing and he told me that i wasnt making sense and that my eyes were barely open when i spoke and then i paused forever. so i dont take those 4 different medications at the same time anymore.
 my comps a miracle and he puts us all to shame. his sister isnt active anymore and his parents are dead. his mother from a sickness and his father was working on a house 2 years ago and it all colapsed on him and killed him. his grandparents are dead so all he has is his sister and her husband. and she has denounced the church after she married her non member husband, suprise, so he has no one and yet here he is serving a mission. i was thinking about him and how hes exactly the people i wanna surround myself with the rest of my life. i thought back to people i know back home that would even have a thought of not serving, and i felt immense shame to think that here he is, just some poor brazilian from petropolis, no parents or family that supports him and yet he never went innactive or had doubts of serving.
 well as of right now hes the miracle i have but i need another one because we have no one we can baptize this saturday. its times like this that have me questioning myself, where is my faith?
 elder richard g. scott said in a talk once, ´´ spend a couple hours on your knees, itll do ya good.´´ i think i need to spend a couple hours on my knees.
                          LOVE YOU ALL, ESPECIALLY CAMBRIA
                                - Elder Parker
Letter To Dad

what do we do for general conference weekend!?
 we find a member with a van and literally get as many people as we can that want to listen to the prophet and apostles. its one of the best times of the year because people can firsthand see and hear the prophet and apostles we talk of and since every investigator needs two times in the church to be baptized this counts as one also. but the important thing is that its saturday also so that counts. so if someone cant make it to church sunday this week, great! we can watch conference with them for one hour on saturday and baptize them the next sunday. so we basically have to sundays this week and our goal is to get between us two companionships in my area to have 25-30 people watch this week then baptize as many as we can next sunday. ive got high hopes for next sunday but as of now we have no one to baptize this sunday. one family we have were all tired and said theyd come next sunday and the other the dad said they never wanna see us again because they wanna be  catholics forever. this guy speaks about how catholic they are when him and his family havent been to church in 10 years! its people like that that we have to cut literally because they have become prideful  and they cant understand anything we teach because they dont want to. anyways im working really hard, and if it means anything the weather has been better here so while your at the beach just remember that i only sweat when im sprinting a half mile to return home at nine thirty because were trying to get every minute we can preaching the gospel and we cant break our curfew. you cant have the spirit with you if you break the rules, and you cant baptize if you dont have the spirit. VAMOS LA BATIZAR PAI
o ya i sent you all a package also but i put the wrong area code on it by accident. our area code is 93611 and i put 93619 but everything else is right so i dont know if it will still make it but if you can please check up on it for me, the number for it is RE536036575BR i sent it through the post office here its called ´´correios´´ it has really cool things in it and im sure your going to want it. please please please check up on it. have fun at malibu.
                      - Elder Parker

Email #14 from Foz

Parker had a very short email to me and a bit longer to his dad, hum not sure about that but anyways they are both included. Just a translation for you from my letter Agora means now. Guess he needs a care package like yesterday or something! and Vamos means lets go, while Batizar means Christian.

thank you for the addresses mother.
HAPPY ANNIVERSARY!!!
   ya so the work is opening up here now that i have a comp that actually respects me and listens to my opinion. so in four days weve already baptized and next week well baptize two more and the week after 4 possibly five. all becuase he listened to me. :) so lifes good. ive settled in. im crazy. im literally addicted to batisms now that i know its the only reason im here. i didnt know that till 4 weeks in but now i know and as you can see the numbers are showing. gonna be short but im going to send pictures. send me like 3 more gigabyte things for my camera and then ill send them to you. care package... AGORA!!!!


Letter to Dad:

HAPPY ANNIVERSARY!!!
  haha i dont know how to spell in english anymore. on a letter i sent tolindsey and jared i noticed i wrote family, familiy. haha
  thats great to hear about aunt joan. i decided that when i return imgonna put this family on my back and work with missionaries and babtize or reactivate everyone if they have a humble heart. nice to hear rileys enjoying volleyball but make sure that if he is banging his knees on the hardwood toconsider wearing knee pads. seriously becuase you dive every five seconds and istill to this day get some knee pains and im pretty sure its because ofvolleyball. thats why i said do track because your legs get so strong withoutinjury but if hes doing volleyball hes doing volleyball. hell like it to sincebuchanan has a really good program too and probably can win some valleys orstate championships his junior and senior year.
     serious dad everyday is a miracle here. you couldntbelieve how blessed we are. i got a new companion and he actually listens tome. my old one was really good but he never asked me what we should do or wheni voiced my opinion he was always quick to just laugh and say you´ll learn. henever listened. even when i said we need to exercise our priesthood more forthese people so they can actually feel the effects of the priesthood instead ofjust hearing it taught by us. he said no you can just say bless this house inthe opening prayer and thats fine. so with my new comp elder avilla he asked mewhat do you want to do. i said exercise our priesthood and what do you know thesecond day in we had already given 3 blessings on complete strangers and itreally opened there hearts. he listens to me. and guess what pops?! one lady wetracted into said she had a headache and didntwant our message because she wasgoing to take a nap. my companion said we can give you a blessing since wererepresentatives of Jesus Christ and we do everything He would do. so we gaveher a blessing of health and ya her heart was opened tremendously! shes veryuneducated and poor. she cant even read and yet when we taught about thepriesthood the next day in our first lesson with her she weeped because shesaid she new it was true because she felt it yesterday. amazing huh? ive taughtpastors, and people with college educations and they will deny the priesthoodbecause they say theres no such thing even though well show them tons ofscriptures in acts and they cant comprehend and yet this uneducated lady whocant even read the verses we read to her understands it. shes gonna be baptizedthis sunday and she gave us a reference to her daughter who has a family offour. were going to baptize 5 people because of a simple blessing for aheadache. let us exercise our priesthood more and vamos la batizar papa!!!

Perry asked Parker why they don't have bikes in his mission:

  Bikes!!! because brazil is where they send the hardest working missionaries. we dont get bikes they get stolen to easily and cause more problems so we walk. everywhere and yet we still find ways to be the highest baptizing missions in the world. the priesthood is a literal power. we gave this young man a blessing to stop smoking and he had never heard of our church or had no idea what the priesthood was. hes 19 and is a squirrely little guy. when he talks he throws his hands all over the place and talks really loud ya know those guys. you should have seen him after the blessing as he could feel the literal power of the priesthood come over his body. he just sat there still. didnt even speak for about 10 seconds and then when he spoke you could just hear it in his voice. he had no idea what was happening. this squirrely little guy then turned into this reverant calm mannered boy. he just sat there and then said what is this thing? we said its a priesthood blessing. he asked ya but what is it? do you get them frequently? why? when do we get them? it was actually funny to see just pure confusion on his face as he was trying to piece together what he was feeling? one elder said feels good huh? he said ya! i like this! if only you could have seen his eyes dad, he had no idea what was happening but he was so calm. he turned into a little boy just sitting in his chair. when he spoke he sat still, and spoke with a reverent manner. it was awesome! love you dad! lead the família to the celestial world!
                              -Elder Parker

Thanks to sister Carrell for posting this picture on our facebook

This is the email I received this week, still frustrated with mom that I haven't gotten addresses to him!

my goodness gracious mom! please could i get some info on elder cleveland, elder trent martinez, elder larry gomez, whether or not taylor pass has gotten his call yet, pierce smiths address, a letter from dakota aust aka shaq daddy, and a care package stacked with some hot cheetos and my medication, and any other peoples info you might think i need such as the address of logan and jenaye, nicole, and tell cambria i want a letter from her, the aust address so i can write dakota, tell chad to write me a letter from his mission, the mission of fresno, california. i want letters from people that i dont know, i want letters from people i do know and tell jared to start a list of movies to watch when i return being that some classics are number 1 and 2 those being the sandlot number 1 and phantom of the opera number 2 and number 3 provavelmente the grinch. also you can just send care packages and letters to the mission address, we get them eventually although very slow but we get them.
        a dog!? when am i going to get an email saying that jenayes pregnant? what are the men of my family doing? wheres the pregnancies? i wanna come home to a whole flock of little nieces and nephews when i return. im utterly disappointed in jared and logan at this moment and even landon for that matter. get it together gentlemen
       nicole just went through the temple? whyd she wait so long? tell her i said hi and im grateful for that one time she made me watch phantom of the opera on her computer when i was like 13. haha
          what the!? pretend baptism!? you think i play games or something? have you forgotten who i am and what im sent here to do? ive got this strange addiction and the only way to satisfy my desires is baptism. ya i baptized that home boy. hes a brazilian dallas. literally he looks walks talks just like him. got his mom lined up this week and he wasnt our first either. i told you ill show you them when i return. there very personal to me and i dont like how other missionaries throw there baptisms around like there just numbers.
        so i had like 150 pictures i was going to send you but my camera broke right as i put it up to the thing. i dont know what happened but im not gonna lie im an angry elder right now. ill let you know if maybe i need a new camera sent.
       so this is one transfer down and hopefully i stay here. i love Foz do Igauaçu! can you believe its already been 3 and a half months?! the language is coming and its kind of cool because im with the same members and people then when i first arrived and im starting to understand them better and they can see my progress also. also one of the elders was having back problems so he went to londrina and his companion an american has joined us for the last 2 weeks and weve worked really hard hitting to areas. its nice to have someone that can tell you the meaning of words you dont know so ive definitly learned a lot these last two weeks. also my comp is our district leader and the american is the zone leaders so ive been learning a ton about everything here. leadership, how to run a zone, the stress youre under, the amount of faith it takes. its tough. ill admit at times i find myself questioning myself; where is my faith? because if you have faith you should be baptizing every week and if you have perfect faith you should be baptizing everyday. and so its hit me really hard these last 2 weeks, where is my faith? so ive decided to study a little harder and pray a little more fervently. but then at the same time i studied the ministry of Christ because he was the best missionary and he did everything perfectly and then i realized that even Christ, the best missionary of all, was rejected even to the point of death. not even he could turn the hearts of everyone.
                 -Elder Parker

Such an amazing surprise this week from Parker! I don't know if this is his first baptism or not, he didn't say. For some reason he did not get my email to him this week and so he had very little to say to me this week, so the photo makes up for it!

From Parker:

i dont know if you emailed me or not but you emailed me the same from last week i think. anyways id like those peoples info. also this was the best week yet to many stories to tell. this whole mission, this whole work is one giant amazing miracle. i think thats the word to describe this last week. AMAZING. i struggle at times but im killin it at the same time. i think that Jesus is turning me into some sort of superhero. I was able to  read some 19 year old girl  named jayne. read her mind. told her she had a question about life after death, she started weeping before i was done. her mom died when she was 2. funny how were blessed if we show but a little bit of faith. i could have not acted on the prompting of the spirit and just taught the same lesson but i didnt and so were blessed. shell be baptized someday. God bless
                                 -Elder Parker

In Parker's email this week he found out that his buddy Elder Petersen (from the CTM) was in the hospital last week very sick so he comments on that and is doing much better this week, things are looking up!


noooooooooooo petersen was my boy! i hope hes getting better. he will be in my prayers. thanks for all the support mom means a lot. this week started off really tough because my elder freitas gave me much more responsibility when we teach so our practice sessions have gotten a lot more intense. im pissed cause he sucks at teaching and he gets pissed cause i suck at memorizing WORDS I DONT KNOW IN PORTUGUESE THE FIRST TIME I LOOK AT THEM so there really just sounds to me. haha seriosly it gets intense he fake punches me in the face or will stand up and start beating me but not actually hitting me and kicking me and i just sit there with a stiff chin cause we both really wanna punch each other in the face. so the week started off rough i was really angry about my portuguese and threw a fit while we were proselyting i wanted to just run around the town and start destroying everything cause he makes me do every house now to help my portuguese im like home boy you cant learn the meaning of words if you keep hearing em in another language and never get to study. o ya he only lets me study portuguese 3 times a week cause he believes me talking to people is better even though i have the same convos everytime cause i cant just make words up i dont know. so i prayed real real diligent on the worst day because i felt like crap becuase of my portuguese and then the next 3 people i proselyted to were like ay you speak really good portuguese for 3 months. im impressed. i was i little softened and then when we were at the bus terminal some asian lady came up to me and started speaking english wanting to know which bus to take to get to the falls from argentina and i was able to translate what she said to portuguese and then what they said to english. then i realized wow i really have gotten good at portuguese i think one more month and i could be fluent. and then just like that the weak was really good and my best yet. we taught a really good lesson to a 18 year old yesterday and i did most of the talking to. now im a little suprised with how good ive gotten instead of how much i hadnt learnded.a total 180.
             i thought i remembered jared saying something about sundays being a nice relaxing day on the mish cause its the exact opposite. we hit the streets at 8 and invite everyone we see to church and walk all over knocking at our investigators doors to make sure they go to church. its probably our hardest working day.
            thats really cool to hear about nicole getting a call cause thats what the beauty of this gospel is, right when your in youre put to work immediately. you have to actually do stuff and grow to be a part of the kingdom of God not just show up and listen to a priest form opinions about the Gospel of Jesus Christ for you.
          this world amazes me. in about 150 lessons so far weve had everysingle person except for 3, wolves in sheeps clothings, say to us after our lesson that they believe joseph smith was a prophet of God and that this was the gospel of Jesus Christ and the True church. but then when we talk about baptism theyll say o ive been baptized, im catholic or evangelical. so well say but you understand they do not perform the ordinance correctly and that they dont have the priesthood. theyll say ya i know but im catholic. so i got so just intense i asked this guy straight up so if God gave you a straight answer that this was his kingdom on the earth and had all truths you wouldnt be baptized. he chuckled a bit, saw i was dead serious and the said, i already know that your church is the true church on earth but i was baptized catholic and all my friends are in this church. i thought you small little man. its funny in second nephi, nephi prophesies people will love Christ but hate the words he speaks not knowing its the words he speaks that make Him the Christ. exactly true all these people draw close to Him with there lips but there hearts are far from Him.
                     time to preach some repentance elder bennett

Email #10 from Foz

So this week's email was hard to get through without crying. Parker is very passionate about the people that he serves and wants so badly to help each find their way back to the Savior Jesus Christ.


mom quit worrying about everything. im fine. ya my shoes are getting wrecked and my shirts are gonna get dirty. if you could see missionaries with a year to a year and half you realize that you hit a point where you dont care cause theres nothing you can do about it. everything i have is going to come back in much worse shape. yeeeessss i know elder havili. hes cool, in my district.
     i wanted to share today about my missionary work so far. im not going to write about baptisms i have or anything but ill take pictures of em and you can see them someday. i dont want to sound boasting or anything if i speak about them publicly. there going to be sincere to my heart and probably the hardest things ive ever worked for so i dont want to ruin there sacred meaning.
     i have been blessed with the gift of discernment. i was given this gift in the ctm after much prayer and studying. when i arrived here i watched a video with Elder Holland about how you should be able to tell everything about the investigator from there eyes. there the window to the soul. so for about a month ive been praying, fasting, and studying more about discernment. i have recieved of this gift. mom, i can look into someones eyes that i dont know the name of and can see what there feeling, need, and the pain they feel.
    we tracked into a ladies home and when she was walking from her door we made eye contact, i could feel her pain and she was calling out to me. when we got into her house to teach her, we found out shes catholic and knows much about religion but the whole time i could feel her pain. she needed to know God loves her and we love her. my companion who seems to be a robot sometimes jumps into the second lesson and i was astonished. i thought can he not see her pain. after a ten minute lesson that i could see did nothing for her he finished and as he went to stand up to leave i spoke up. the whole ten minutes he spoke i recieved an inspired simple question from the spirit and knew i needed to speak even though i had no idea what was going on. so i said a little prayer in my heart that i could even have a sensitive tone in my voice so she knew i loved her. i thought of the savior and how hed say it, cause hes perfect and even His tone is perfect for what times He speaks. so i simply said, i can feel you need something, what is it that you need more of in your life.  she looked to the right for a second, then just broke down crying. she cried for about ten seconds before she could muster up that she needed more peace, love, and alegria in her life. i replied that through the restored gospel of Jesus Christ she can have that. she said something back i dont know but i replied that God loved her and we loved her also, she continued to cry more and then replied something i dont know what she said but i said that we have the book of mormon that can bring more joy into your life. she cried more. i held a conversation with a woman for 30 seconds and i didnt understand a word she said, but i understood her eyes. we knelt and prayed with her and she said she felt more peaceful and you wanna here the best part we never went back and taught her cause we didnt invite her to be baptized and my companion doesnt feel the need to see her again. its been a rough week. we knelt and prayed with a 14 year old young woman and her boyfriend after a great lesson and she recieved her answer on the spot. she proffessed to us that we are sent by God and that the book of mormon is true and joseph smith was a proghet of God. then we showed up the next day and with her hand at her side i could see that the light i saw in her eyes after she prayed was not only gone but her eyes were darker. then she lifted her hand to reveal a cigarrette in her hand. we taught her the second lesson and she didnt care at all, asked her to pray and she refused. can you imagine my pain i felt last night, can you see me almost wanting to cry in front of a 14 year old girl, my sister, because she would choose her crappy life and not accept the gospel. when you have a spiritual experience with someone you form a bond that goes beyond this world. then these people just take it and throw it on the ground. my own sheep, whom im trying my hardest to gather. can you see me mom, i wake up at night cause im dreaming of these people and i cant sleep. i kneel for half an hour for these people and then lay in my bed and lose sleep over these people. that woman whos husband is cheating on her we see her everyday and she cries because she needs to take antideppressants because he calls her telling her its her fault. i was dreaming about her on wednesday, i dreamt of her pain. i woke up at 3 in the morning wanting to cry. i layed in my bed for a whole hour thinking praying for her. can these people not see that i love them, can they not see that i would die for them. yesterday i almost lost it. i realized why my comps a robot. he makes no connection with these people whatsoever, asks no questions because he knows in the end theyre just going to hurt him. hes not scared to ask the questions hes scared of how these people just openly deny you. im not struggling but right now i am hurt. i have to stare into peoples eyes and see that they need the gospel and stare into there eyes and see there pain then they just deny us. im going to give everything ive got this week, push myself even harder cause when we put ourselves out there Deus rewards our faith

Email #9 from Foz do Iguaca

Well, I would say that things went much better this week for Parker. Enjoy!


i hope your well mom and the surgery went all good and youre getting better. sorry to hear about chad and ill keep him in my prayers. about the address its tough cause if you send packages to the mission home they wont pick em up. they dont have time. you have to mail packages to a member in my area and im new so i cant really give you one haha but maybe someday. the letters you send em to the mission home and about once a month or possibly transfer they send them out. there more concerned about baptisms here. nobody really gets mail to tell you the truth. so just mail em to the mission home or when i get more accustomed ill let you know a better way until now thats all ive got.
           i have some things that have happened to me over the week that id like to share. just things i wrote down just cause im still getting used to the culture here. its probably the only time im gonna do this unless something extreme happens. i need to start kicking it into high gear ive only got 2 years here and i need to do all i can.
          on my street i thought there was two strip clubs. upon further investigation ive realized there hair salons. dont know what woman with giant bosoms have to do with hair but whatever brings in business.
           the old chaps have it down here. theres certain spots where they just chill under a tree and drink this brazilian drink all day. there the nicest people in town and always wanna talk. they know theyve worked a whole life, done all there is to do, and seen all they can see so they just chill, dont do anything just sit in some shade and talk with friends. there my idols.
          i have no idea whats going on. one of our recent converts called us hysterical so we met with her and she was crying a bunch. i thought cause her husband didnt wanna join the church also but it turns out she just caught him cheating. ya took me 3 whole days to figure that out. i have no idea whats going on.
         they sent the whitest boy to the hottest and poorest area in the mission.
         the brazilians cant believe i tract with that gold coin in my shirt pocket especially in our area. everysingle one tells me im gonna get a gun pulled on me. fool i got Jesus on my side
        people here will do anything we tell them to... except be baptized!
          found my mission call in alma 17:11
        i have a feeling once i get this language down im gonna be the best instrument in the Lords hands here. these are my people and i connect with them on so many levels. i just cant let them know yet.
       ya know in that movie the other side of heaven when that one girl tries to get with the missionary and he doesnt and after the mom is like just give us a white baby! lets get something straight, any woman that makes me a home cooked meal, i will marry her daughter and give her as many white babies as she wants. theres nothing like a home cooked meal. ive yet to find anything thats not delicious when you just throw rice and beans on it. salad, fruit, meat anything.
          right when my companion elder freitas was talking about baptism and about to invite a woman and her 11 year old son to baptism she just took her boob out and started breast feeding her baby. he invited her to baptism with her boob out. second time thats happend when a woman just pulls her boob out in a lesson and breast feeds. i see woman with there boobies out just breast feeding kids on there porch. ive seen more boobies here, as a missionary, a representative for Jesus Christ then ive seen in my whole life.
      i interpreted some adele song for some brazilians. i felt like that guy on saving private ryan at the end when he interprets the song. felt cool
      the kids play that kite runner game on windy days in the streets where they rap there stirng around each other and snap it. its super cool to watch there really good. they play with string wrapped around old beer cans with crappy kites here. thats how poor it is.
      tell grandma b i got her letter and i wrote her back
     theres random ripped old dudes
   this is the most selfless two years of your life. i wake up, pray for my investigators, study for 3 hours for my investigators, teach my investigators, get home pray for them more and plan the next day for them. its really awesome though the best time ever. i feel like a little shepherd with his little flock, trying  to guide them to the real great Sherpherd. i need to start talking more in our lessons, even if i dont know how to say it in portuguese its a lack of faith on my part. anyways hours up love you all. im going hard from here on out. eu sou Dan Jones
                                   Love,
                                             Elder Bennett