My Great Week / BSU Lost

Well to start off I would just like to say GOOOOOOO NEEEEEEEEVVVVVAAAADDDDDAAAA!!!!! Everyone knew that it would finally come to an end for BSU and now it came. I will have to say that I am a little sad however. I think it would have been cool for BSU to play in the national Championship, but there are always more chances. All I know is that Oklahoma won. YEEEEAAAA!!!!! Well now onto things that or of a greater importance.
This last week was great. I think that any week that the Lord blesses you with a baptism is great, and this week He did just that. We were able to have a great baptism of Ailton. He is a great man and will really be able to help out the ward. I feel really blessed to be in this area. It really is a great area and really has a lot of potential for greatness. I am just trying my hardest to be able to help the area grow as much as I can.
Here are a few things that happened this week : ( This week was pretty normal)
1. On Friday I was able to make steak, corn and fried potatoes just like you make them. It was really a great site to see and a great taste. It had been a very long time since I was able to have some good American food like that.
2. I was able to go on a division with someone that I was with in the CTM. Good old Elder Steggell. He really is a great guy. He is from Rigby, Idaho. It was a really good division and we were able to have a lot of fun and success together. We studies about foreordination one morning and we found out a few great things. It was a great study and good division.
3. On Thursday we had a conference with President Richardson. It was great and I learned a lot. He really talked a lot about 100 percent obedience. I agree I am trying every single day to become better. It is not easy but I know that with the Lords help I will be able to get there.
4. Today I practiced singing with the other missionaries. I will be singing in a quartet. I think I already said that but if not surprise! We will be singing two songs. I was chosen to sing and to lead the group which I really do not know why. One of the songs I will be singing melody and the other one I will be singing baritone. I have never sung in parts in my life. I can sing melody really easy but baritone with be an interesting experience. We will be performing these two songs for all of the south part of São Paulo. I think it will be about 4 or 5 stakes in all. It should be interesting. haha.
5. We are being blessed with some great investigators right now. We have a few that are really great and some others that are a little bit tougher but great people. Today we will see how a few of them are doing. I am very excited for one of our appointments. It should be really interesting. He does not believe in the Resurrection and it is because of this that she has a hard time going to our church. She believes that we will all be reincarnated. I left a few scriptures for her and told her to pray about it. I am excited to see what she was revealed. I love the mission so much and for the chance that I have, while on my mission, to trust a little more in God. It is great.
6. I have been able to study the book of Mormon a little more lately. It has been good. I really love the Book of Mormon. I am trying to be able to finish the Book of Mormon before Christmas. Let us see what happens.
7. We bought a new shower head. That is great news because now we have hot water!!!!! Brazil is a little different. In the USA you have hot water and cold water. Here it is just cold water unless you have a good shower head that heats up the water for you before it comes down on your head and body. I really miss good hot water. ha.
That is all for now. I really love you so much mother. Thank you so much for your great example and for everything you do for me. I really do love you so much. As for Grandma you should ask her to do the same thing. She should ask God whether or not she should drink coffee. If she would do that then she will finally see why we do not drink coffee. Invite her to do this prayer and to ask God what she should do. I promise that she will receive an answer and that she will finally be able to stop drinking coffee with God’s help. If she asks God with an open heart she will feel him telling her what she should do.
I know that this is the true church here on the earth. I love the church and the gospel. It is really helping me so much. I love my savior and Redeemer I know that he really did die for me on the cross and that through his suffering and death I can be saved. I love him so much. We are so blessed to have so much technology that helps us to be able to be closer to God. We just need to choose whether we want to use the technology for good purposes or bad. I love my father in Heaven. He is so great to me. I love you all. I love my family so much. I love you mother. Thank you for everything that you do for me. Just continue to pray for me (especially about the song I will sing). I love you and thank you for all you all do for me. Until next week. I love you. Tchau Tchau!
Elder Daniel J. Parkinson

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

Awesome Week

Well this last week has been a really good week. It has been a little stressful but also really great. The Lord really blessed me and my companion. I really love the mission field and everything that I have been learning while here. I finally feel as though I have changed a little while on the mission. I finally feel as though I am not the same person I was when I left. I feel that it is a good thing that I have been able to change on the mission. But, I am still trying my hardest every single day to be able to not just change but to change into the person that God would have me be. To really turn into someone different and better than whom I was before, (I know you all are thinking..... How could Daniel Parkinson become even better or more beautiful? But I will have to say that it is true? I have changed and for the better). haha. But now I will get more serious. I really feel as though I have been changing. I am glad to see that. Well let me tell you a little bit about this week.
1. We were able to clean the house. That was really a victory. Now I can finally feel a little clean when I get into my house. The toilet instead of being black is not a nice white and the floor is now clean and well the bugs are gone from our house.
2. We went on a division with the Assistants. They really helped. One of them already passed in my area and so he was able to help me out a lot. He showed me the house of a few members which helped. I now feel really good in the area.
3. The new ward is great. They love to help and are really great people. They like to leave with the missionaries during the week and just love to teach the people. I am very excited.
4. The area is really nice. It is a great place to find people that are looking for the Gospel. The people here really seem open to at least accept us on the first visit.
5. The Lord really blessed us these last few days. We were able to help a few people. One family accepted to be baptized here in two weeks. I really hope they continue to go strong and stop drinking coffee. They are a great family and I think the Lord blessed us by putting them into our path. I still think Grandma should stop drinking coffee. ha. That was a hint. Also we were blessed to find a family on Saturday night. We taught them on the door step and invited them to go to church. They went to church the next day and then went to a family night last night. They are really great and I feel the Lord put them into our path. They are a great family.
6. Well me and my companion are completely different, and so it has been kind of rough but now we are doing good. We have talked about our differences and put plans to be able to work better together. We gave each other a blessing and I really feel as though now, even though we are different, we will find great success and friendship together.
Well there were so many other great things that happened but I really do not have time. You will all just have to wait to hear all the great stories when I get back home. I love you all. I love you so much mother. You are such a great example to me. I love you and look up to you. So many woman here in Brazil also look up to you because of how much I use you as an example. Also they all think you are beautiful, but we already knew that I mean I have to get my amazing looks from someone right? I know that this is the true church. I know that God is at the head. I know that God loves us so much. The Book of Mormon is true. Thank you again for everything. I love you mother. Thank you for everything that you do for me. I should get your package or letter this week. I will let you know next week. Until next week. Love you!
Elder Daniel J. Parkinson

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