Salvation/Eternal Family/Zone Conference

Well in the last conference they chose me to sing a song with a sister missionary. It went really well. I am really learning to love to sing and to love to do things with instruments. It has been going pretty good. Also me and my companion made a song to sing for the zone conference. All of the Zones had to present something that explained there work and so me and my companion made a song that goes with the tune of "Have I done any good in the world today". It was really good. Really funny as well. Everyone loved our presentation.
I agree. It is really so hard to always have the Spirit with us and to one day live with our father in Heaven again. I think what needs to happen is that everyone needs to do the little things and really search to live with him again. I think sometimes we forget how important our salvation is. We work harder in our jobs or in sports or other things like that and we don’t try near as hard for our Salvation. I think actually I know that we should always put more effort into our salvation than to the things of this world. Because the things of this world will only bring happiness for this life but the little things and thinking of our Lord always will bring happiness that will never end. What a great blessing. The scriptures say that Eternal life is the biggest and best gift that we can get from God. It is better than being a doctor it is better than have 2 million dollars it is better than being the best football player. So why don’t we search it? At times I think we just forget why we are really here. We are not here to just have the joy of the world. We are here to have the joy in our savior and eternal joy and to choose the right. Sorry I kind of got out of control there. haa.
Well this last week has been great. I really love the missionary work so much. I have really come close to my new companion and we are teaching really well together now. He is helping me become better and I am trying to help him as well. We are supposed to start to baptize again starting this week. We have a few weeks marked in a row for baptisms. We are hoping to at least baptize three weeks strait. This last week we saw an amazing change in someone. They were very different the very first time we saw them. They had a baby about 3 months ago and are living together. They are not married and told us that they do not plan on getting married for at least 5 years. They have been together for about 3 years already. We started to teach them and the spirit started to do his job. After a few times passing by and after they went to church they changed completely. They are obeying the word of wisdom and we are going to mark a date for their wedding for this coming month. I am so very excited. I am excited to be here and to help the Lord work his miracles through me. I am nothing but with my savior I can do all things. I am so grateful that the Lord is blessing me and I know that you and the family cannot see it right now but he is blessing our family as well. The thing is that blessings do not come easy. We have to earn them. The Lord is waiting to just bless our family like no other but as a family we have to do the little things and be together. We have to look to God. Once we all pass these challenges the Lord will bless our family tremendously. WE NEED TO STAY TOGETHER AND DO THE LITTLE THINGS. WE NEED TO STAY IN OUR OWN SPOT AND STAY TOGETHER. That is how Moroni and his armies won so many battles in the Book of Mormon. They were together in their cause and they search for guidance from the Lord. That is what we need to do. I know that God loves us and wants to bless us; we just have to do our part. We have to beat these opportunities of growth (trials) so that we can receive the blessings and increase in wisdom, etc... I love you so much mother. Thank you so much for everything that you do for me and for your prayers. Thank you (the whole family) I have so many great examples. I am thankful for my family and my friends every single day. I love you all. Jason stay strong and take care of your kids and do the little things. Shane search search search for the love of the savior. He is the great healer of all things. Have patience and forgiveness and know always that I love you and look up to you. You were always there to help me when I was little and so now let me help you and be there for you. I know that I am little and younger than you but I also know that I can help you, but first you have to help yourself and do the little things and plead unto the father for the things that you need. I love you Shane. Justin practice sports a little more so that you have a chance against me and always show your love for your family. They are your first priority not your schooling. Love them and do the little things with them. Take care of your kids and take care of your wife that you were blessed with. Krystal be patient in your trials and with your child. Look to God to help you and know that I love you and so does your father in Heaven. Mother let your light shine for the whole world. Be an example of the righteous. Do the little things always and go to the temple. I love you mother with all my heart. You are my example and my hero. I love you all. Be strong and be one. God said if you are not one you are not his. Be one and do the little things. We CANNOT LET SATAN WIN THIS BATTLE OF OUR SOULS AND OF OUR ETERNAL FAMILY. This is a plead and an invite to you all. If you are doing the little things keep doing them and if you are not repent and start to do them. WE MUST BE SPIRITUALLY PREPARED! Stay close to God and live. I love you all. Until next week. Know that all is well.
Elder Parkinson

Testimony Builder

I am so excited to be an Uncle for the 9th time. Now I can finally say that I am the only one out of the kids without a kid and that is single. haha. Good for me. However I am where I need to be and the other things will come later. I am excited as well about her name choice. Also I am surprised that she actually could choose. That is a miracle on its own.
The mission is going great. The story I wanted to talk about happened two Sundays ago. One of our investigators was not at church because he was really sick. He had planned to be baptized this next Sunday(which he was baptized). We went to his house and talked about the power of the priesthood and the chance that he has to help his whole family and bless his family with his priesthood. We than asked him if he would like a blessing. He agreed to it and so we gave him a blessing. Within about 3 minutes after we gave the blessing he turned and said to us. I don't feel sick anymore. My headache and my fever are gone. I know that it was not anything that me or my companion did but it was the Lord helping to build his testimony and ours. I am grateful that the Lord worked through me that day. I am not perfect at any means and I feel tremendously grateful that he still blesses me in my weaknesses. SO many great things have happened this last little while. I love my new area and my new companion. I have learned so much from him. He used to be the Assistant to the president and so he is teaching me many things. We have talked a lot lately about many different subjects. It is great. I love to study. I love reading the words of our Prophets and apostles. They really are men called of God. We all need to see things how they really are. Satan is trying to win this battle. We need to focus more on spiritual things and not on the worldly things. American idol can wait, house can wait and our friends on facebook can wait as well. If we do not do our daily prayers and a good scripture study we really need to start to do that. Before we watch any show we should ask ourselves. Did I read today and study the scriptures or do I need more spiritual strength. We all need God in our lives. Let us all win this battle against Satan as a family and as Friends and brothers in a good cause. This last week me and my companion were also blessed with Three baptisms. Oh what a great sight to see someone accept God into their life. I know that this is the true Church and that God loves us. I am so grateful for everything I have in my life. Especially for the Great mother and family that I have and for the chance that I have to have God in my life. I love this Gospel and I know it to be true. Every morning we recite a scripture from the book of Mormon when we put on our name tag. I don't know how it is in English just Portuguese. It is 3 Nephi 5: 13.
"Eis que sou um discípulo de Jesus Cristo, Foi por Ele chamado para anuciar sua palavra ao povo, a fim de que tenha vida eterna.
I think it is something like this "Behold I am a disciple of Jesus Christ, I was called by him to announce his word to the people, so that they could have eternal life."
I know this statement to be true. I was called by God to help the people here in Brazil and that is what I will do. Please pray for the work here in Brazil. There are so many people who need to hear what God has in store for them. You all as well can help the work of the Lord Progress. I love you all so much.
Elder Daniel James Parkinson.

Investigators/Transfer

I really loved this week so much. We really seemed to get a lot done thanks to the help of the Lord.

Well lots of things are going on the mission. In the last three weeks I was on division about 8 times with other missionaries. That is all because our Zone had a few problems. So me and my companion were the solution to those problems. This last week was amazing. I had a division with somebody that was in the CTM with me. That was really fun and it was great to see the progress that we both have made. We are really good friends so that made it really easy as well. This week was also full of great lessons and many miracles. I still don’t know how everything happened. I just thank God every single day. I will start off by saying as well that I was transferred again. Yes I know again. I don’t really know why but at times I really get sick of being transferred, but i will go where the Lord sends me. This time I almost returned to my first area on the mission. Almost. I am still Zone Leader just of a bigger Zone now. Yea for me! haha. My new companion is really good. I love this guy. I already knew him pretty well before. He used to be the Assistant to the President. He stayed with that calling for about 9 months. He is really good and I hope that I can be taught many great things. His name is Elder Arêas. Everyone thinks that he is American and so we will go along with it. We decided that he is from Arizona.

Back to my last area real quick. This last week was amazing. I think sacrament meeting this last Sunday was the best sacrament meeting of my life. The spirit was so strong and answers to my prays and many other prayers were answered. Including a prayer from one of our investigators. He prayed for God to show him that this is the true Church. He asked God to make him cry so that he would know. He said that he never cries. During sacrament meeting he just started to cry like no other. He started to ball. I was so touched by that I know I have a even stronger testimony that God Answers prayers. Also we had one of our investigators go up and bear his testimony on how he knows that this is the true church and that he wants his whole family to be baptized and that he too will be baptized here pretty soon. I was so touch and I felt so blessed for that. That area that I left with have one baptism this week and about 5 in the next two weeks to come. In church we had about 8 investigators. I feel really blessed. I love this gospel and know it is true. I am nothing but with the Lords help I can perform miracles for him. I know this is the true Church.

Elder Daniel J. Parkinson

Area 70 Visit/Transferred

Well to fill you in on a very busy week. We had an amazing meeting with Elder Godoy(Area 70). He really is a man called by God. He helped so much. He first had a meeting just with the Zone leaders and with the District leaders. He talked to us about many things. We actually had a conversation. He is really smart and a great man. Then we had our meeting with everyone. That was such a powerful meeting. First Sister Richardson talked about whose team are we on? If we are not on Gods team we are against him. Than President Richardson gave a short talk and then it was Elder Godoy the rest of the time. He talked about 4 traps that sometimes missionaries fall into. He was so right. He helped me so much. He really helped me to change my mission even more. One thing he talked about is how to invite people for baptism. I am so grateful that he did that. It helped so much. He taught old things that we all knew but just forgot. I tried his way, or should I say the way of the Lord, to invite people for baptism. It worked like gold. We invited 10 people to be baptized and all 10 accepted. I was very very excited. With the help of the Lord and his servants everything is possible. Than two days ago we got our transfers again. I really don’t think I will stay in one area for longer than 3 months. Once again I was transferred. This is my 6th area in 1 year and one month on the mission. I also have now 8 companions out of 9 Transfers. haha. Well whatever the Lord calls me to do I will complete. I was moved to Diadema. I am now with Elder Rebouças. He is a pretty cool missionary. He actually was my Zone leader when I was in Itanhaém. He is way cool. We are going to have a lot of fun together. We joke around a lot but also we will work really hard together. I did a few splits with him a few times. He is a great missionary. He is from Rio De Janeiro. Our key to our house broke today so we had to have someone come and rescue us. Also we are opening an area together. So we are starting fresh. haha. I am still a Zone leader but now opening an area. This area is so much different than my last area. But I think I will love it as well. Just depends on your attitude on things. Well that is all for this week. I will miss Elder Guthrie in my last area. We learned a lot together and plus I think we started a great friendship. He is pretty cool and will be missed. His mommy did a good job.

Elder Parkinson

Week February 8, 2010
I am so grateful to be on my mission. The time actually goes by so much quicker than what I thought. I am loving it so much. It is not an easy thing to do but it is defiantly worth it. Well that is great news that the Saints won. So does that mean the Grandma will be going to church? I told you the Saints would win. You were all surprised I picked that team. I knew what I was doing. I really hope it was a great game to watch. Was it as good as last year’s game?
Remind grandma she could live even longer without the coffee and a new set of teeth. Also it would be great to have her enter the temple with me when I get back. I cannot believe she really is 89 years old. That is amazing. Well
I am loving the sun I have not put on sun block yet here in Brazil. Maybe I should it has been 103 with about 80% humidity the whole last week. It has been so tempting to jump in the ocean. He uses sunscreen (a ton) everyday. But he kinda needs to I think. Even with 70% protection sunscreen he gets burnt. Ha-ha. I don’t understand. My comp tried to leave on me the other day. But I am glad to know that I talked him out of it and he will stay now. I love our President also who helped him so much. The mission is really hard but it is the way to go. Just pray and God will listen.
I love this Gospel so much. I just want as all to run that last mile, jump that last log, and dive into the pool of happiness and eternal life with our family. Never give up. Use your talents and your gifts. God will always make a way for us to accomplish all things
Elder Parkinson

February 2, 2010
Yes I would say that time goes by really quick. I now have 9 months in the mission. I really cannot believe it. I feel like I just left yesterday. The great thing is that I am speaking the language a lot better. It feels great to be able to talk with just about anyone in the street. I am really loving each minute of it. I am also loving the chance that I have to teach the gospel with the people here in Brazil. It has been a little hard the last transfer. We had a lot of Baptisms fall through. That was hard to see someone going so strong for so long and then giving up or having the mom or dad not let them be baptized. I really love this church so much.
Yea I bet it surprised you all a lot when I decided to chose the Saints and not the Colts. I love the Colts so much I really would just love to see a new team win it you know?
Today we climbed a 2400 foot mountain. That was not good in the heat. It was so hard and just strait up. For the first time I felt like I was in Brazil. Going through all the trees. The forest here is a little thicker than in Idaho and with a few different spiders etc.. It was way cool. When we got to the top we took some really sweet photos. So it is about 90 degrees today with about 80 or 90 percent humidity. That is pretty hard to work in. The week was really hot. That was not very good. I am really burning alive but not as bad as my comp. I am already kinda used to it. I would love to have some snow here. It would be such a blessing.Also my shoes are already starting to break about. The bottoms are pretty destroyed but I will get them fixed here in Brazil I think. We will see how much it is.

I am doing great. My new comp is pretty cool. Yea my week was pretty different. It is really different having a new missionary. I would have to say that training is not as easy as I thought it would be. I am just glad that my companion is pretty great. He is learning really quickly. The only thing that is bad is that he is really going through some hard times. We like most of the same things. I think here in a little while he will speak very well. Also I just hope that I can help him out with a few problems that he is passing through. I know that the Lord is always waiting to help us in anything. No matter if it be homesickness or other things. I really hope he can understand that. He is from Washington and is burning alive here in the hot weather. He will get used to it here pretty soon. Well that is all for now. Elder ParkinsonP.s. also thanks for the good looks it is funny to walk in the street with the girls here in Brazil. haha.