To start out, my birthday and mission tour were amazing! It was well worth the 7 hours spent in a truck that day and sitting in a 10 hour meeting pretty much! Road trips on the mission are just the best! I'll just say that and to be taught by a member of the quorum of the seventy is another amazing experience! I learned so much from Elder Robbins and Elder Echohawk! It was funny because I REALLY LOVED what Elder Robbins talked about and then the next day while I was on lds.org I realized that he was the one that gave the talk, "What manner of men and women ought ye to be" (http://www.lds.org/general-conference/2011/04/what-manner-of-men-and-women-ought-ye-to-be?lang=eng&query=manner+men+women+ought) and I loved him that much more because that talk helped me out SOO much when it was given :) Had probably the biggest birthday lunch you could say, except I kept it a secret and just about no one knew it was my birthday ;) hahaha What topped the night off the best was when we arrived home, there were 2 packages in front of our door for my birthday! One from y'all (THANK Y'ALL SO MUCH!!!!) and the other was from Elder Thawley's family! Let's just say this week with all the cookies and cakes I got I gained 2 pounds :/ haha Don't think I'll be eating sugar for the rest of the time before I go home haha.
So now a brief moment on some of the miracles that occurred this week! One of the happiest was what my blog was directed towards about the smoke here in the valley that has been so bad :/ Well last Sunday, the entire stake here in the valley was encouraged and asked to include in our fast that the Lord might ease the smoke and clean out the valley pretty much. Fasts and prayers are answered because by Sunday morning the smoke began to disappear and is currently still gone! Just a witness as we gather together in a common cause and join in fasting and prayer with faith, miracles WILL happen :)Another began earlier this week, but we didn't become a part of it 'til Friday. We were out tracting in an odd spot of town and had no idea why we were there. We knocked and knocked and many people weren't home and for those who were, said they loved what we were doing but that they just weren't interested or had time. So we didn't think much of it and had a few appointments we needed to get to afterwards. We saw one of the ladies as we left the apartment complex and simply said, "Bye Bonnie!" Well, fast forward to Sunday at church and here walks in miss Bonnie with a friend of hers it looks like. We were both shocked as she was one we remembered and didn't even invite her to church! She stayed all 3 hours and we talked to her after church but didn't seem like she was too interested in meeting with us so we just told her it was great to see her and said goodbye. Well, that evening we got a phone call from the friend that came with her who ended up being the stake presidents wife and this is briefly the story... The stake presidents wife used to get her nails done pretty frequently from Bonnie for years. She would take her kids with her and it would just be a great visit each time. She eventually gave Bonnie a Book of Mormon and didn't think much of it. At some point she quit getting her nails done, for no apparent reason, just had. It had been years since she had them done and just this past week thought, "I'm going to go have Bonnie do my nails." That happened earlier this week. Well, then we knocked on Miss Bonnie's door Friday and she told her that 2 sweet young men knocked on her door earlier that day and she didn't let us in because she had laundry everywhere but when she went to take out her trash we had remembered her name and said goodbye and she thought to herself, "Those boys have met so many people today and they remembered my name!" Well, then she called the stake presidents wife and told her about the experience and asked if she needed a sponsor to attend the LDS church. She said no but that she would need a friend so she got a sub for her class and came along. When she called us last night she said Bonnie had left church and had been reading the Gospel Principles manual our teacher gave her all day and that she wanted to meet with us! HOW CRAZY IS THAT! I don't know if there could be a greater witness that God is in the details of our lives than that! A miracle indeed :)
Lastly, I would have to say Gary Creswell's baptism was a miracle in itself! We were busy helping somebody move early that morning and were just all over the place trying to get everything in order and ready to go. Many people attended the baptismal service and the spirit was just super strong :)
Have to say, one of the families here is from Mexico and we had dinner with them this week and she made the BEST green chili enchiladas I've EVER had! Yours are still the best though, mama :)
I just love EVERY second I've been blessed with and the time I still have left to be a missionary and be an instrument in God's hands! I tell you there is no greater feeling than knowing you were where you were supposed to be, at the time you were supposed to be there, and doing the right thing :) It's just great!
I love y'all so much!
-Elder Parr
No comments:
Post a Comment