Goals for this month

Hi!!!!
Well this will be one more short e-mail. I would just like to fill you in on a few things that are happening.
1. This past week we had one more baptism of a girl named Maraiza. She is great and was really prepared by the Lord. In just one week she prepared herself to be baptized. It was such a great baptism. I never have seen someone so happy in my life. After her baptism she just could not stop smiling. It was great. Also because of her example we are now teaching her sister-in-law and brother and mother. What a great blessing of the Lord. We are planning on helping her brother and sister-in-law get married. It will be great. Maraiza really was a miracle.
2. This week we are going to try to baptize 5 more people. I really hope that we will be able to do so. We are really trying our hardest and still falling short but the Lord is so great and does the rest for us. I love this work so much. The Lord really does bless us so much when we do what he would have us do. All 5 of these people are miracles. God is so great. I think every single day that passes by I realize even more how much I really need him in my life and how useless I am without him.
3. The mission is so great. I really do not know what to think about it right now. I really do not want to leave but I know that that day will come when i will have to continue on with my life and go home. I am not excited for that day but at the same time I am excited for that day. I only have 2 months left on the mission. Here in 2 weeks we will find out whether I will finish my mission as a zone leader or weather I will train for my last transfer. I really want to stay here but we will let the Lord decide what is best.
4. I have been reading the book of Mormon in Spanish lately. It has been great. I can actually understand almost everything. I just cannot speak Spanish but understand and read it I can.
5. I have really decided that God really does love his sons. When we establish a goal and work our hardest to achieve that goal and really try our hardest and put our faith in God he helps us to reach our goals. My companion and I established a goal of 10 baptisms this month and we are trying our hardest to reach it. We need a few more and know that with God it is possible. I really know that God will help us if it is his will. The greatest thing is that we look at the success that we are having and we realize that it really is not us but it is the blessings of God.

I love my mission so much. I love you all as well. I hope you are all doing well. I love you. Tell grandma that I love her as well. Also tell her to stay strong. That is all for this week. Until next week. I love you all.
Elder Daniel J. Parkinson

P.s. Also please tell everyone to start to write there e-mails on Sunday because here pretty soon I think in 3 or 4 weeks we are going to start to have our p-days on Monday instead of Tuesday. OK? Thank you so much.

3 New Baptism

Mother,

Well it is good to hear that all is going well. Also good to hear that Brandon Lowder returned. I hope that he is doing well.. Well mother about the sending me things. You can send whatever you think that I would like. I mean by the time I get it I will be coming home almost. haha. So I really do not need anything. The only thing that would be great about this time would be money. haha. But I really do not need that either. Just let everyone know that if they would like something from Brazil they need to send me some money to get it for them. ( If you want anything send mom the money and I will put it in his checking account and he can just use his debt card.)
I did hear about Jason´s chickens. ha. I think that will be a very interesting experience. I should be great
The work has been great lately. I am really loving the mission so much each and every day. I do however; realize that I am getting really tired. ha. I think that after the mission I will need a week just to be able to sleep. I am really just dead. We were blessed last week with 3 more baptisms. The Lord really is so great. We just try our hardest and come short and he does the rest and makes the miracle happen. I am so grateful for the Lord and for the help that he is always giving me. This coming week we are planning on having at least one more baptism maybe two more. This young lady is great. She was really prepared by God for this day. I am the one that should be teaching her but she is teaching me. ha. The mission is so great because you can really see the changes that everyone is going through. It is great to see someone you taught change for the better. It brings you such a great feeling inside. Well the mission really is great. I really do not have words that describe the happiness that I have. I really do not think I have been so happy in my life. It is weird to see that I am very happy but at the same time very stressed. I never really thought that these two things could exist at the same time but I was wrong. I am so stress with things to do but I am also so happy with the things that have been going on and the things that I have to do. I love the mission field. I really do not know how I will feel leaving this area and Brazil. It has really turned into my home this last little while. I love the language and I love the people. I really do have a love for these people that I cannot describe. I finally understand what Justin meant when he said that he loved and loves the people in Indiana. Well I got to get going. I just want you all to know that I love you all and pray for you often. I love my Father and God. I know that he cares about me and helps me if I let him. I love my savior and Redeemer Jesus Christ. I know that he died for me so that I can live. I love this great plan that God made for us. As I say in Portuguese....Só alegria!!! or in English just happiness. hhaaha. I love this work. I know that God really does help me every single day. Thank you for everything that you are all doing for me. I love you all. Until next week.
Again mother I would like to say that I love you and am grateful for your example to me. Congrats on everything that you are doing and have done in your life. I love you.
Elder Daniel J. Parkinson

Baptism / Non-members at Church

Well I am so sorry but this letter will have to be short as well. I am really trying to run around so much. It seems like every single week I am getting more and busier. This week I have decided with my companion to do something that will help the zone. This thing that we are doing will unfortunately take up a little bit of the time that I have every single week but I think that it will be worth it in helping the zone and the kingdom of the Lord here on the earth.
I am sad to hear that everyone is getting sick and I hope that everyone starts to feel a little better. Well.... I had one more nail fall off on the mission. haha. That is 2 almost 3. It is really normal and they grow back just fine so don´t you worry.
Today I was able to play some soccer again and some basketball. It was really great. I was able to do a few cool things and impress the Brazilians. The young men in my ward think that I am pretty good at soccer they always tell everyone about it. Now it is pretty well known in the ward. ha. Now I am the American that plays soccer. ha.
This last week has been really great. We were so much more blessed than what we deserved. The Lord is so great. We were blessed with three baptisms. A couple and young man. Now that the young man has been baptized his younger brother also wants to be baptized. That is great!!!!! This coming week we are planning on baptizing 3 more people. The Lord is so great. We have so many great investigators and it is nothing that we are doing it is truly the Lord doing all the work and we are just trying to help out a little bit in the work that He is doing. Also I had a record this last week of investigators at church. We were able to have 17 investigators and 30 people that are not members of the church. It was great!!!!! I really do not know how that happened.
We are teaching an old man named Ideval. He is truly great and we were able to teach him about coffee the other day. We told him all about it and why we should not drink coffee and then at the end he said well if God does not want me to than I will stop!! He has been doing really well so far in not drinking coffee. I am so happy for him. As for Grandma... Grandma I do not want you to stop drinking coffee because I think you will have more happiness on this earth because I think you are already really happy. My desire is that you could stop drinking coffee to be able to have eternal happiness with your family. I firmly believe that God loves you Grandma and so do I. I want and so does God that you can have eternal happiness and not just a few more years of happiness. I know that it will not be easy but I know that it is possible. I do not really want you to do this because of me but because of the whole family and because of God. I challenge you to pray and ask God if you should stop and really listen and follow his answer. I know he wants you to stop drinking coffee. I know that if you do you will be able to have eternal happiness with the whole family and that is my desire. It has been hard enough to not be with you for 2 years I would not be able to imagine eternity without you by my side. Please Grandma stop drinking coffee! This is my invite for you. As a representative of Jesus Christ I ask you to stop drinking coffee because I love you!!!!!! You did lose the bet but I do not want you to stop drinking just because of that. I want to be with you for all eternity. I know that God would like you to stop as well. I will not stop preaching to you Grandma I mean you are a few years older than me so I hope that you do not get mad at me just know that I ask you these things because of my love towards you. Just ask God and let him tell you what he thinks.
That last message goes to everyone. If it were up to me I would love to live without a few things so that I could have eternal happiness and life. The only way to do this however is in keeping the commandments. I love you all so much. Sorry that this is short. Also Goooooo Green Bay!!!!! I love you all.
Elder Daniel J. Parkinson

Possible of 200 New Investigator's

Well just for everyone to know I stayed in the same area and I am still Zone leader and my new companion is Elder Ingersoll. He seems to be pretty cool. He is from Washington.
Well this week was really great. We were really blessed by the Lord so much. I will give you a few things that happened this week.
1. We had the visitation of the Chapel. It was great. Almost the whole day I was out on the street trying my hardest to get people to enter into the Chapel. So that was about 5 days of just contacts. It was great. It was really kind of funny the way that people would act when you stopped them on the street. The new Chapel is so beautiful and it will be great to start to use it. During the visitation we received about 200 people or more that would like to receive the Book of Mormon and that is just for my area. Within these 200 people we really found some great new investigators that I am excited to work with. One of them we taught yesterday and already marked him for to be baptized on the 20th of this month. He accepted with a willing heart. He is great!!! Also we were able to mark about 6 other people for baptism. This week we will have a baptism of a couple and a young man. The couple are really special and their son was already baptized about 1 year ago. So now we will complete the family. The Lord is really too great. I really feel so grateful to the Lord and everything that he that he is doing in my area. It also seems like we will be blessed with 3 more baptisms this next week. I really hope that I am worthy of such blessings. I will try my hardest and hope that the Lord will do the rest. What great time in my mission.
2. Well we left yesterday to go to lunch with one of our investigators. It was great.
Well I would keep writing because I have a lot more to say but the problem is that the Computer that I am using is really be slow. I am not being able to write anything. So I will have to fill you all in the next week. Sorry for this but I really do not have 2 hours to wait for the computer to be fixed. Just know that I love you so much and thank you so much for everything that you are doing for me. I know that this is the true church her on the earth. I love you all so much. Until next week. Love you and sorry.
Elder Daniel J. Parkinson