My week

I am excited to one day be home in your presence again but on the other hand I am excited to be here on my mission in the presence of God( or at least a little closer). I am not perfect and doubt that I will be perfect one day but however I will try my hardest each day to be more and more perfect. That is really the trick to life. We will never change from one day to the next and be perfect but if we try each and every day (our hardest), one day will be able to live with our Heavenly Father. What joy that should bring to our heart as we try our hardest. The only real way to find true happiness and to feel the love of God in our life is obeying the commandments. Every single day that passes I realize how much more I need to learn and how much more I can do. I just pray and hope that when I finish my mission I will feel as though the Lord accepted my mission. My thoughts are like this... if one bishop or one missionary or an investigator felt as though I did not do my best but God knows that I did my best and is happy with what I did that is fine with me. I am not here to gain the fame of the missionaries or the fame of men but to make my Father in Heaven happy.
Well onto other things. Good to hear that finally Grandma won. ha. That will all change when I get back home and can actually see the teams.
I too agree that the Book of Mormon is amazing. The other thing that is amazing is how many times the same thing was said and yet we still sometimes do not obey. It is amazing how much patience God has with us. He says something and says something and says something until finally we obey him or decide not to listen to him.
That would really be great to have the whole family or at least the grand kids together. If that happens I would love to have a picture of that.
Well now I will talk about the things that happened this week:
1. Well actually this week was pretty average. It was actually a sad week because we had to let go some of our investigators because they were not progressing and find new ones. That is really a hard thing to do. Sometimes you really get attached to the people that you are teaching and then you have to let them go, but it is part of this great and wonderful work. I also think I have found my Grandma here in my mission. She reminds me a lot of Grandma Parkinson. I joke around with her the same way that I do Grams. She also jokes around with me. It is always a good time. She to is giving a lot of references for us. What a great old lady. Good old Grandma Alba. ha. Like I do with Grandma I told this other lady that she is sexy and if I was a Brazilian and lived here I would marry her. haha. She thought that was funny and called me crazy and laughed like Grandma would do.
2. Yesterday we had a great meeting with all the leaders in the mission. It was really great. Sister Richardson talked a little bit about Faith. It was such a great talk. She really helped me so much. I really need to gain more and more faith. Faith is the attribute of Christ that we really need to work on every single day because with faith and hope all the attributes can come into place. Also President gave a few words of advice about marriage. ha. It was really funny to hear his story about how he got married. I played the piano for the meeting which was really hard for me since I do not have time to practice. Our president is already ready for Christmas. We sang a few Christmas songs. ha.
3. Today I played some soccer with my Bishop and a few other people in the ward. It was really great. I actually played pretty good and the Brazilians said that I am not American but really I am Brazilian. They feel as though I have a little bit of Brazilian blood in me. ha. Today has been a great day so far. It was lots of fun to play some soccer. Our bishop was the best player on the team. He really plays way good.
Well that is a little bit of what is going on. Just know that all is well. I love you all. Mother I love you and thank you for everything that you do to help me. Stay strong and always read and ponder and pray. That is the key to success. I love you.
Elder Daniel J. Parkinson