Things I am Grateful for / Love my Mission

Let it snow, let it snow, let it snow. What a beautiful sight it must be to see snow. That is one thing that I really miss here in Brazil. I do not really feel as though thanksgiving is this week and Christmas is right around the corner. The mission has been going by way to fast. I really love every single moment of my mission. It has been full of tough times but mostly it has been full of Spiritual and physical growth and lots of fun.
Well first let me list a few things that I am grateful for:
1. My savior and redeemer Jesus Christ and for the great Sacrifice that he made for me and for the rest of us. I am so happy to know that I will be able to live with him again.
2. Grateful to know that I can become better every single day.
3. Grateful to know that Our family can be together forever.
4. Grateful for my great mission. The best mission in the world. ha Maybe Justin and Shane and Jason will disagree but really it is the best mission in the world.
5. Grateful especially for you mother and for you great example for me. You really inspire me to become better and to do my best. I really love and am grateful that you are my mother.
6. Grateful for my great brothers and for their great examples. Krystal I too am grateful for you.
7. Grateful for my whole family
8. Grateful for good old sexy Gramms
9. For the Book of Mormon
10. I will just finish this list saying that I am grateful for everything that God gives and will give me and gave me. He is so great and I know that he really is my father. I love him and am grateful for all the difficulties that he puts in my life as well as the great blessings. I am grateful for his great plan.
11. For my President of the Mission and his wife
I think that is a good enough list. The list just keeps going on and on and I do not have that much time.
Some of the great things that happened this week:
1. I realized for another time that I really do know that this is the true church and that God loves me. I received another witness of this.
2. My nail on my big toe came off. haha. It was a great experience that did not even hurt. The nail died because I hurt it playing soccer and so I had to help it fall off the other day. That was my first surgery and it was a success!!! I will say that it is a little weird without my nail there. It has always been there ever since I was born and so now to not see it is a little weird.
3. We finished the great training. I really learned so much and was so uplifted by the testimonies that we had on the last day. We have one of our investigators that is progressing for baptism. He is doing great. I feel very blessed to have him especially because we are opening the area.
4. We had a great experience on Tuesday. I realized that I am really nothing and that we always need to have the spirit to be able to be a missionary. We were teaching two investigators that really did not want to stop drinking coffee (grandma) because they said they loved it so much and have been drinking it so long that they did not want to stop. For a person to be baptized they have to stop drinking coffee. We told them that they needed to stop because that is what God wanted. They said that they really did not understand that it was something so bad. So they said they would not stop unless God told them that they needed to. So we said we’ll let us pray and ask God right now. We asked Luis (Husband) to offer the prayer. We told him to ask God whether or not he should stop and than just wait to receive God´s answer. So we all kneeled and he started to pray he said “God I am thankful for these missionaries and I pray to you today to ask you if what the missionaries said is true. They told me that I should stop drinking coffee and that it is a sin and that it is bad for me. God let me know if this commandment is true and if I should stop drinking or no. In the name of Jesus Christ amen." We than just sat there in silence. No one said anything for about 2 or 3 minutes. I started thinking to myself. Should I say something or just stay quiet? The spirit told me to be quiet and so I obeyed. Than all of a sudden Luis started to pray again.. He said almost with tears. “God now that I know that drinking coffee is a sin and what the missionaries said is true help me to stop drinking coffee. Give me strength so that I never drink coffee again. In the name of Jesus Christ amen." This experience was such a great experience that I will never forget.
5. Well I cleaned the house again today and now it is really nice. I finally feel clean in my house.
6. Our next door neighbor is going to make us dinner tonight. I am very very excited. He said he will make BBQ ribs. ha. Yea American food!!!
7. All and all the week was great. We were really blessed. I really love this gospel so much. This week has already started out good and we hope to make it end even better with a baptism.
Well I love you all so much. I really need to go right now. I just want you all to know that I love you. I want you to know that this is the true church and that the Book of Mormon is true and can bring so much happiness into our lives if we let it. I love my mission so much and I know that I am nothing but with me God can make miracles happen. This is the only true church on the earth. The only place in which we can find not only happiness in this life but eternal happiness. I love you all so much. Thank you for your help and your support. Have a great Thanksgiving day and eat a lot of Potatoes for me. Mother I love you and thank you for everything that you do! I am grateful that God let me have such a great mother as you.
Elder Daniel J. Parkinson