The Spirit Can Change The Heart of Men

 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  

Pictures from the Mission

Transferred to a new area Tupa

thanks for everything dad. ill be sure to print out his talk and give it a read. ive been transfered and ive turned senior comp and im opening an area. im in a city called tupã. when i say opening an area i mean that the other two that were here both went away and me and another elder, my comp. elder saraiva showed up with nothing. we dont know any members, where anyone lives or where is good to proselyte. nothing. its called opening an area. its literally the worst thing to do on a mission. especially without cars or bikes so its just straight walking and getting to know everything. its funny the time i turn senior comp, i get to open the area. and tupã is not known for baptizing. its a super weak area. haha everyone told me they feel sorry for me cause i got sent here and im opening the area, everyone was like good luck elder. little do they know weve got 3 baptisms lined up for this saturday, thanks to giant miracles. thanks for everything dad, love ya. although it looks tough right now, nephi 3:7 just keeps pumping in my heart. theres no way the Lord would throw me into an area just to fail, just gotta give it all to him!!!!

                       - Elder Parker

Mom,

    im in Tupã!!!! i got transfered to Tupã! this area sucks so much!! im about to turn this whole area around!! the members are such fubecas!!!(slackers) im going to burn everyone until they start coming to church! i showed up this sunday and president of the branch told me id be giving a 5 minute talk, rolled up to church and he said he had to leave for work and that the other people to give talks didnt come to church, elder parker can you give a 25 min-30 min talk today? i responded yes! but at the same time i was like fuuuuubeeecccccaaaaasssss!!!!! its crazy to think how much ive grown, i gave a 25 min. talk in portuguese and i didnt have any problems, everything just came so fluently. i even had more to say too. crazy huh!

    im opening the area also! which means the two missionaries before were doing nothing so president tavares took both of them out and put me and Elder Saraiva in there to clean it up. these elders did almost nothing here. they left a paper on the desk that said, sorry we didnt leave any investigators or anything for you, but heres some addresses of people that you can visit. it was a guy they had taught one time, two weeks ago!!! and the others were some less active people!! you might ask how will you baptize sunday if you are left with no one to baptize? you hit the pavement and talk with every living thing and ask if theyve already been to church, and if they have, you invite  them to be baptized! we didnt even unpack our bags, dropped em off and went for it... we almost did it also! met this 25 year old guy and his cousin who have already been to church before and we almost baptized them sunday! only miracles in tupã! the only reason they didnt was because they drank coffee. the only reason we didnt get it because it was a little too late. haha everyone told me this area was a mission hole, you cant baptize very much there if at all, haha, weve got 3 people marked to be baptized this saturday, thats more baptisms then the missionaries have gotten here in the last 5 months! God blessed us so much by putting them in front of us! let us all rejoice!!!!

       my new address is for letters:

                                    Rua Marília 3001

                                    Vila Santa Inez- Tupã -SP

                                    CEP: 17603-340

 cambria wants to be home schooled, NO she cannot.

          elder chambers and i are living together! hes my district leader! were in the zone presidente prudente, aka the lowest baptizing zone in the mission.

          and whatever happened to alex katich!? i got an email from him 2 weeks ago saying he was in the ctm in são paulo!? i cant email him back cause its against mission rules! tell me where he is at and what mission hes going to please!!!

       whatever happened to logan and jenaye, its been a while since i heard from them???

         

              PARABÉNS PARA MINHA IRMÃ E O MEU CUNHADO PELO SEU BEBÊ NOVO!!! :D   (translated is: CONGRATULATIONS FOR MY SISTER AND MY BROTHER-IN-LAW FOR HIS NEW BABY!!!:D) I think this refers to his new car??

-          Elder Parker

Lessons to be learned and Lessons to be taught!

Hey Mom,  thats great that you took those two girls to church. baptize them. im not gonna lie i dont have much time again. those chicks wanna be baptized so bad, they got a hold of us and called, saying they wanted to be baptized. but the step dad (from last week) said hed beat them if he found out they were baptized. i aint got time to play around with this drama! theres other people to be baptized!

    school again huh...

     so long elder pierce smith, i love you!

     last sunday i was livid. i cannot describe the feelings of anger that i had for that step dad. mainly being because im a representative of Jesus Christ, so there is nothing i can do. so i went to bed early and was sitting in pure anger. guy stole 3 baptisms from Jesus, that dont happen. but while i was sitting in there super duper mad, the argentinian, Elder Altamirano came in and said teach me english please. so he handed me a book of mormon in english. he started reading in helaman 5 and he sucks at english haha. so then he said lets read in portuguese. i then realized he wasnt doing this to learn english. he read helaman 5 the first six verses when it talks about how nephi got dissapointed and leaves the town because no one recieved him. for the verse when God says to him blessed are you nephi, elder altamirano switched it and said blessed are you elder parker. but when he was reading it, HE started crying. cried he did. indeed he did cry. and then he said blessed are you elder parker for all you did for those kids. it was a very nice moment and it made the anger slowly leave. you cannot expect to baptize people with anger in your heart. upon further studying of this chapter i noticed one verse i like when God says to nephi that his tongue is loosed and that whatever he says will happen to other people. i feel that through my trials, the Lord is loosening my tongue. this week, one of my recent converts took a friend to church. we passed by there talked to him about being baptized this sunday, he was a definite NO that he would not be baptized. 3 scriptures and 15 minutes later and a whole lot of the Spirit testifying, he was telling me hed be baptized this sunday, and telling me what hour he could be baptized. lets go!!

        - Elder Parker

wait i dont know if i was transferred, dont send anything. they havent sent the email out, terds.

Dad,

Yes,  i took that money out, i had some stuff that i needed to buy, so i could baptize more people.

  haha the clovis north parking lot, remember how i thought you just push the brake and it stops slowly for you haha. (remembering driving lessons)

   no i will not be missing the vineyard.

   actually me and elder luchmun had a cool opportunity to go out and see a farm close to the city. we baptized this couples kids and there also preparing to be baptized . they just need to stop smoking, drinking, coffee and get married. its a long road for them but ill have them baptized in 3 weeks. anyways, they took us to this farm that he works at. it was super cool! the best part though was that they had wheat there, really really white wheat. so as we were driving i started thinking about D and C 4 and how we should teach them a lesson. so i asked him to pull the car over and then we had a lesson on the side of a dirt road and read D and C 4 and explained to them how right now there green, but we want to prepare them so they can be white, and then after, us the farmers in the Lords farm want to harvest them through baptism. it was a really cool lesson and they both accepted to be baptized and begin now with working on there addictions. one of my funnest lessons here in brazil.

      awesome to hear that so many missionaries are going out all over the world. i dont know how young men dont serve missions. i cant wait to hear where some of my other friends wil be serving like cameron malan and addison parker. i really hope they serve a mission, it will haunt them for all of eternity if they do not.

     things are going great here in the arapongas, i didnt get an email so im pretty sure im going to stay one more transfer, so nothing changes until now. im almost baptizing weekly, im so close to baptizing weekly. so dang close. anyways love you a ton, hope everythings going well and family nights are a regular at the benett house. o ya a cool thing, my first week  i was here in arapongas i baptized this 18 year old kid that was going no where in life, and this sunday he baptized his friend/ next door neighbor that we have been teaching. all because him and another recent convert took him to church. you take em to church and ill baptize em!!!

                             - Elder Parker

Can't die for a baptism!!

Mom, 

     ya thats the correct address to my house here. but its better to not send anything to me now cause i might get transferred within the next week. wait til my next email to send stuff. i got kotys missionties letter and his pictures he sent me. but the other i have no idea.

bryce pass is going to chicago thats so cooool!!! bryce is and will always be the man.

 thats nice to hear that taylor and tanner enter the same day at the mtc. its like a happy ending to such a good rich friendship.

  do me a favor and dont tell me how many days i have left on the mission. and plus im 8 months in going on my 9th. get it straight

   maxwell lubratich, whens that guy gonna serve a mission

   whats this!? i have an email from Elder alex katich and you never told me he got his call and hes in the brazil ctm right now. why didnt you ever tell me!? what mission is he at?

   i also used all my computer time to put music on this little memory card i have, im sorry dont have much time. thanks for everything mom, love the family and i hope that your all doing well.

 this week i had three teenagers from a family that want to get baptized but their  step dad didnt let them. its two sisters and a brother. they are super cool and they wanna be baptized really bad but this step dad, whose not even there father told them they cant. we taught them all week then when thursday came,  he came out to meet us at the sidewalk in front of there house and told us that we cant come back and they will never be baptized. so me and elder luchman stood our ground and told him we wouldnt leave and that they want to  be baptized this sunday. we were totally calm, this guy was yelling at the top of his lungs and making a scene in the neighborhood. then he started trying to talk doctrine with us, so naturally we burned him in front of everyone, using the bible. then i started to advance towards the house and he pushed me back and said that he doesnt want  to hit me but that he will if we stayed there. haha he reminded me of a small dog that gets backed into a corner. so i started moving towards it more and he just went crazy. thats when he went to far. He told us all about how he studied the bible for ten years in prison and that he was gonna shoot us if we dont leave. he was definitly drunk and im pretty sure he smokes crack, then he said he was going to put a bullet in me if we didnt leave. thats a little far for me so we left. he didnt like me at all. so he said hed put a bullet in me if i came back so we sent our district leader over there the next day and i guess he went crazy again. so we lost 3 baptisms this week because of their step dad. the worst part is that we had a training on how we need to be like captain moroni for out investigators so me and elder luchman were like lets GO!!!! lets just bust in there and steal the teens and baptize them on sunday! haha  but we also dont wanna die on our missions, its a mission rule, but  we would die for a baptism if we had to!!

                  - Elder Parker

lesson on Pride

O.K. there is alot of sarcasm in this letter! directed at Mom, because she did or did not do things this Elder had requested! I'm still repenting!!! Also lesson learned on Pride!!!

thanks for the testimony mom,

  i dont know who those people are just add them, i think that maria lady is the one tht had the dream about me. if there brazilian you dont need to ask me mom, just add people.

    Yaaaa nicole  got her patriarchal blessing! righteous!

     is chad in prison or is he staying in something more like a half house because he gets to watch tv and he is the teacher for gospel classes they have, and he is going to get released way early, does he get room service also... hehe

     PLEASE GET THE ADDRESS TO THE MTC FOR ME. i really wanted to write a letter today to the both of them and then send it there because it would take 15 days to reach them and then they could recieve it in there first couple days but ill have to wait another week to do that. or maybe more if you forget again.

    but you didnt forget the package!!!!! i forget how much better american candy is then brazilian. reeses are the best. we already ate everything. thank you so much for the package!!! it was great! the south american elders here cried tears of joy when they found out i got another package.but i have a question, why do you throw wierd stuff in there, i dont know if other mormon moms are polluting your mind or if jared is saying stuff because i have never said i needed a towel or gum. dont send gum. its actually a rule on the mission for all missionaries worldwide that you cannot chew gum in public. Jesus reps dont chew gum. please dont send gum, that can be more reeses. and the towel? i already have 2 and yes they stay dry. but the mangos, reeses and reeses pieces are spot on. i also dont need more journals. thanks for the pictures also, i like the second album better.

photos of my baptism please!! how am i supposed to baptize the children of brazil if i cant show there mothers that i was baptized as a kid also, mothers will not sign the baptismal form if i dont have there confidence!

      and whats this?! the olympics are going on?! nobody ever said i would give up the summer olympics! keep me posted on what happens please, all the brazilians love to keep me posted on how the u.s. is already out for soccer.

         i learned a lot about pride this week. i studied the talk by President Ezra Taft Benson called Beware of Pride. its really really good and he basically just rocks everyones world about how pride is the root of all sin. so i was relating to my mission and i realized that when one feels fear to share the gospel, its a sin. if i feel scared to talk to someone its because of my pride. i feel scared to talk to them because im scared of what they will think of me, but i cannot fear any man, only God. i should be more afraid what God will think of me then that man, that is humility. but if i am scared and i dont talk to them, its not cause im scared, its because im prideful. so how do i get over that, i get on the city bus, tell everybody good afternoon, then start talking with everyone about baptism and if they wanna be baptized. Vamos Lá!!! i remember when elder luchman showed up here to be my comp and after a little talking about our missions i was thinking whats this?! why is this guy my senior comp?! i have almost triple the baptisms as him and we have the same time on the mission. i baptized more in the last transfer then hes got on his whole mission! and he came here, this is my area and now he wants to call the shots! Such Pride! Pride in the Priesthood! he is called by God to be my senior and i have learned a lot from him AND hes already baptized more with me in this transfer then he did in his mission so far, but imagine what could have happened if i never got over my PRIDE were great comps together and ive learned that being junior or senior dont mean anything, im going to baptize in any place with any comp cause i can control what i do and i will always follow the Lord. i remember in the first week of my transfer i was thinking why is he my senior?! the problem with this is why was i not thinking who, how, and when are we going to baptize. SÓ BATIZAR!!!

                              - Elder Parker

We are the SHIZ!!

Mom,

if you had a loved one that was standing on train tracks and you saw the train coming would you push them off the train tracks?                             but what if they didnt want to go? what if they wanted to sit there and let the train hit them, but you knew that you could over power them in the moment and throw them out of the way, would you throw them out of the way or would you let them choose to take there life away by a train right in front of your eyes?

        its the same with baptism. Jesus Christ said that people that arent baptized cannot enter into the kingdom of heaven. with that being said, i chuck people in the water and baptize them! people build a bridge of sins that certainly doesnt go to Heaven, and they cant cross over that bridge alone, so i push them off the bridge into the water below, and i baptize them!!! if you would throw someone off train tracks to save there mortal life, then why would you not do all in your power to throw them into the water, even if against there will, to save there spiritual life? the mortal life will only happen for so long, but our spiritual life will be forever.

        so thats what i did, i threw an 11 year old girl in the water this week. she didnt really wanna be baptized nor did her mom want her to because shes only 11 but we passed by there saturday night and God gave us a miracle. her grandma is some crazy evangelical church lady who loves to scream and shout like crazy pastors, i instantly connected with her. i met her that night cause shes from another city and i just used the technique that the apostle paul uses when he preaches to the corinthinians, adapt to who you teach. haha i was saying everything was a miracle and that she needed to be baptized and the grandma started going crazy about baptism. she was in the little girls face screaming, " you will be baptized tomorrow and were gonna take pictures! in the name of Jesus you will be baptized!" i was in the background yelling "amen!" amen! then i started talking about how God put her here this day so she could see her grandaughters baptism and it was a miracle. (actually we had been praying for a miracle and this really was it!) but when the g mama heard miracle and that she was involved in it. it was over, that little girl didnt stand a chance, we left that house to a physcho grandma screaming " thank you Jesus! thank you Jesus! my granbaby will be baptized tomorrow!!!" and i baptized Danyelli the next day, thanks to the craziest evangelical grandma of all time. if she ever comes to town again, im baptizing her also, giving her the priesthood and im doing a division with her, and were baptizing everybody and there moms.

 took this homeboy to church, hes got a family, do i smell a family baptism this sunday???

  get me the address to the ctm please!

     its also been 6 weeks since i got a letter. thanks for the love everybody! theres brazilian elders that have families that live in huts that have gotten letters since then!

  me and elder luchman went to this crazy spiritualist meeting, i snapped a real quick footage of these crazy people on my camera, your all gonna love it, and then people started freaking out cause i was filming so we jetted out of there before they sacrificied us to there gods. and i havent gotten the package yet. o ya my zone baptized 47 this month, the old record was 28, we are the SHIZ. (as in Shiz the man from the book of mormon, more specifically the book of Ether who has an army that kills everyone in his path like our zone that baptizes everyone in our paths. ;D)  ( Ether 14:18) catholics knees shake when we arrive!

                               - Elder Parker

  thanks for everything dad, the elect are hearing the words of the Lord and they are following. things have changed for me as a missionary, its time to start throwing people in the water and baptizing them! we met this guy last week and he is married and has a twelve year old little girl. we took him and his daughter to church this week and i hope we can baptize them as a family this sunday. there really welcoming and told us they have been searching for the true church now for a long time. he is a very nice man. he gave us a ride home so thats a good sign that he respects us and wants to learn more. im really excited for there family, because ive still never baptized a family as a whole on my mission and he has a lot of potential to be a good leader here in the church. 

Keep the prayers coming!

                         -Elder Parker