Baptism Christmas Day

Well again I will have to be quick. It really seems as though all I do lately is run from place to place. All and all Christmas passed by really great. Let me just say that the Lord blessed me with a white Christmas..... YEEEEEEAAAAAAAAA!!!!!! But just wait a minute. It is not the white Christmas that you are thinking. I was able to baptize someone on Christmas Day. It was really such a great blessing. The person that we baptized is named Rose. She is such a great lady and it was really such a blessing to be able to find her. The Lord really put her in our path. We were teaching her for just about 2 weeks or so. She accepted all the lessons really well and really did not have any problem with any of the commandments. Everything we invited her to do she did. She said that she really realized that God was showing her what she needed to do in her life. She said that she asked God a while ago that he would show her the path that she needed to follow. She said that after she did that she married someone that is a member of the Church. Unfortunately her husband died but after that she found herself passing by our Church almost every single day. Every time that she passed by she said she really had a desire to enter and to see what it was all about. Then she was found by two missionaries while she was getting off the Bus. After that we arrived at her house to teach her. She said that it has been a while now that God was showing her where she needed to go and what she needed to do, and so when we started to teach her she prayed and received her answer and from there on out she followed her answer with 100% of Faith and effort. She is really such a great person and it was a blessing to get to know her. Now we are working with her little son and her sister. We hope to be able to baptize the whole family. Let us see what God decides to do with us and this family.
Well it was great to speak with all of you. I really love you all so much. It is weird for me to think that next week when I speak with you it will be 2011. Or in other words it will be the year that I will return back home. That is so weird for me. I remember when I got in the mission everyone said you will not be going home this year nor the next year but only on the next year. haha. That was always hard to hear but that last year has arrived. I am filled with mixed emotions. I really want to go home to be able to do the rest of the things that the Lord has for me but at the same time I really do not want to leave a country I now love and people that I love and a mission that is so amazing. It will be hard for me but I know that the Lord will always be with me if I let him be.
Just a few things really quick:
1. Thank you for the things that you sent mother. It was really great. My companion really enjoyed it as well. He wanted to say thank you for everything that you gave him. Everything you sent mom was really great. The pen is way good and the recess.... well you know how much I like them. ha.
2. It seems like this transfer will be a little harder in the zone. They took out all of our district leaders and made them zone leaders in other areas. So now we are training three new district leaders and received a lot of new missionaries. It will be challenging but I think that all of you that really know me should know that I really enjoy a good challenge.
3. Christmas in Brazil is really different than it is in the USA. Here it is a time that everyone gets together just to get drunk. They all stay up until about 3 in the morning on Christmas eve because and midnight they eat a huge dinner. It is really a strange thing but that is OK. There are also many other things that make Christmas here a little different than in the USA. Another big factor is the whole thing about Snow. I would really love to see some good old snow. ha.
Well just so you all know I am doing great. I really love you all. I will have to admit that I am starting to really get tired, but I know that as I look to God he will always give me strength to keep walking, etc... I really cannot do it on my own I really need his help every single day of my life. I know that as we look to him always we will be able to accomplish anything that we need to. God is the key to success. Christ is the key to salvation. We really need to do the little things so that we can have success and salvation. If we do the little things we will show to God and Christ that we are trusting in them and not our own strength. I love you all and invite you all to make goals for this next year. Think of things that will really help you to become closer to God and then really try your hardest to complete those goals. I know without any doubts that this is the true church of God. I love you all and wish that you all have a great new year and that you all can be safe and always do the little things. I love you.
Elder Daniel J. Parkinson

Events of the Week

A few things that have happened this week:
1. The musical went great on Sunday. A few of our investigators were able to go and watch me sing. It was really great. Again I will be singing for our Zone Conference tomorrow. I really do not think that I sing that well but they just keep letting me sing. Thank you mother for giving me your musical ability. I am excited to practice this talent a little more after the mission. I will also be trying to learn how to play the piano a little better as well. I realized that music and playing instruments are really great. I love it.
2. Well I stayed in my area with my companion. I will be killing him (he will be going home at the end of this transfer). It should be interesting
3. We were blessed with two baptisms this last weekend. It was really great and a great miracle happened before the baptism started. I would love to tell you all about it just remind me on Saturday. It was really a great blessing in my life. To this day I do not understand how I deserved that great blessing, and how it all happened. It is a mystery to me but not to God.
4. God blessed us with one more amazing investigator. A member brought her to church. That is really the greatest thing that could ever happen to a missionary. I encourage you all to invite your non-member friends to go to church with you. It is really so great. Just invite them to come and see for themselves.
5. We are really trying our hardest and praying that God will help us to help a lady come unto Christ this week through baptism. We are really trying our hardest to be able to baptize her on Christmas. It would be so great. We will have to see what happens.
6. Thursday was a day very nuts. The whole day I was running back and forth trying to help my zone. it was a great day. A day that completely killed me but it was all worth it in the end.
7. Fasting really is a great thing. It does bring about miracles and more knowledge.
I love you so much mother. I know that this is the true church of God. I know that God loves us so much. I am so grateful for Christ´s sacrifice that made it possible for me to live with God again. I love you so much. Until this weekend! Love you.
Elder Daniel J. Parkinson

Great Week Teaching and Baptism

This week was really great and stressful. But again I was able to see the blessings in my life. I am really blessed and the Lord really does love me and take care of me so much. I will talk about a few things that happened and will happen this week.
1. I will have a baptism of some man (Alcides). He is really great. He is getting kind of old and does not understand very well but still really needs to be baptized because the truth is that everyone needs to be baptized. His family has been waiting for him to be baptized for some time now. Also we might be able to baptize one other person. A young man (Bruno) that is really great. I really hope that all goes well for these two baptisms.
2. This last week we were able to baptize two little kids. One is 10(Jennifer) and the other is 8(Gabriel). The 10 year old has been wanting to be baptized for about 2 years now but no one would let her be baptized. She has been going to church for about 3 to 5 years now and was just barely baptized. I feel very blessed that the Lord put me and my companion here to be able to open the heart of her family to let her be baptized.
3. Last Friday we had a play and a choir for Christmas. It was really great and we had a few investigators there. They really enjoyed it and I was able to sing again and to lead the Choir. haha. I have no clue how to lead a choir but it was a learning experience. ha. It all turned out pretty well. We had some great food after the whole choir and play. It was good. Also while on division I taught two ladies in our area. They are really so great. I am very glad that God put them into our way. The lesson with them was amazing and they really have a strong desire to follow Christ. They are marked to be baptized on Christmas but let us see if all goes well with that. I think that maybe one of them will be able to be baptized but the other I do not know. I really hope they will both be baptized.
4. We taught a lesson the other day to a family. It was a very interesting lesson. We tried to show them that every single time that they decide not to do what God would have them do they make Christ suffer. So during our lesson every single time they made an excuse to not do something me and my companion did a few push-ups until finally the pushups became a little hard. They finally understood that they really need to do the right things so that they make it so Christ does not suffer and so that they too will not suffer. It was a little different but also a pretty cool lesson. I have been really trying to teach the people I am teaching lately instead of just teaching lessons. It is so much better and the spirit is so much stronger when we do that.
5. While at Church the speaker said a phrase that I will not forget. He said to know is not to practice. Many times we know how to do things but we decide not to do them. It is so true in our lives. We cannot just know how to do things but we need to know and then do them.
6. Also I was able to go to the temple today. The temple is really such a great place. It had been about 6 months since the last time that I went to the temple. It was really great to be there again. I really love it so much.
7. In reading the book of Mormon I have really gained a stronger testimony of our savior Jesus Christ. I have really found some amazing scriptures that are slowly changing my life little by little. I love this gospel and the chance we have to learn continually and to grown and become better. I love this gospel so much.
8. We really need to obey the little things and look to the word of God. Like Nephi and Lehi looked to the liahona for help we to must do this and look to the words of God and pray to God to know what we need to do and where we need to go. I love this gospel so much.
Elder Daniel J. Parkinson

My Week/Testimony

Mother of Mine,
Well this week was really interesting and great. It had lots of great things that happened and also a lot of stress, but the stress is what keeps me going and animated. I think you know me pretty well. I always did like the tough situations. It makes life more interesting. Just know that all is well. I really love my mission each day. Each day there are more things for me to learn and more trials for me to learn how the pass with the Lords help. I just love the mission because it has really helped me learn that I really do need God every single hour of my life. I am nothing without him. Well I will now fill you in a little about my week.
1. Well this actually happened two weeks ago. I received the best comment in my life. I was sitting down with a young lady to interview her for baptism. In the middle of the interview she said, I would like you to know something. I have never felt so much peace and comfort as I did when I entered this room and starting talking with you. ha I really was shocked. I really am nothing and I feel grateful that she felt God next to her.
2. This week I was on a division with Elder Hair. He is really a great missionary. It was a great experience. We talked and we joked around and we learned together. I am also grateful to have a great District leader like him. He is a new district leader and is learning really quick. He is doing some great work in his area. I also ate real pizza for the first time in 1 year and 7 months while I was with him. Also I was able to eat pizza for 6 meals in 4 days. It was a great experience.
3. Miracles happened in our area. We found a few new investigators that are amazing. They really enjoyed our first visit and really are great young ladies. I am really excited to continue to teach them and their family. The Lord is really blessing us so much. I still feel as though I need to do a little more so that he can bless us even more. I am trying to do my best each and every day but I still feel as though i can do a little more.
4. This coming week we will have for sure one baptism maybe three. I really hope the other two people will pass the interview and will have the desire to follow Christ. They are great. This couple that I hope will get married is the couple that I told you about already.(They are the coffee story couple). The other person is a little girl that is 10 years old. A lot of other missionaries already tried to baptize her but for some reason which i really do not know the grandma now let her be baptized. They are such a great family.
5. I was able to watch the dance festival of the stake. It was a great experience. The young men and woman here are very talented. I also met a British person while there. He started to come and speak to me in English and his accent was very thick British accent and I told I was born there. It was a good conversation. The dances were great and our investigators loved it. I really helped a mom and dad that are thinking about getting married and baptized. Their son danced and that really touched them. The Lord is great!!!! Again it as nothing that I did.
6. Well I was not supposed to sing until the 19 but we got called to sing early at another musical in another place. I was only going to sing in São Paulo not the ABC but they called us four to help them sing in the ABC as well. It was such a great performance. The choir sang amazingly and the investigators that were there really loved it. Also I got to see a lot of the members from my old areas. One of those people wrote me a really touching letter that someday i will read to you all. We sang Oh how lovely was the morning, this is the Christ, and Oh come all ye faithful. It was a success. That was the first time I sang in Parts and it actually sounded pretty good. Everybody loved our part a lot. It was very powerful. The best one was oh how lovely was the morning. It was very strong. In the middle of the song we stopped singing and let one missionary say the first vision. That part was really strong. When we do it in São Paulo I will be the one saying the first vision in the middle of the song. I am way nervous. haha. It was a really great experience that I will never forget and neither will any of you because they are going to make a CD of it. Yea!!!!
7. Yesterday we had our leader council. It was really good and again me and Elder Loveland (one of my favorite missionaries, a big buddy of mine who plays for BYU football) sang a special hymn for everyone. I think I am really starting to find out how much I love to sing and play instruments. I will probably be doing a lot more of these kind of things later. I really love it.

Well I got to go. Just know that I am grateful for each one of you. I love you all so much. Also could you tell Shane happy late birthday. Also mother happy birthday this next Monday. I love you all so much. Thank you again for everything that you have done for me. Just know that all is well on the mission field. I am not perfect but I am trying to get there. I love you all. Mother you are great and never let anyone tell you different.
Also always remember to be happy because you are and we are all members of the true church Of Jesus Christ. That should give us all a reason to be happy. I know this is the true church and I know that God loves us so much. He really is our father and will be here for us in our times of need. I know that Christ Lives and loves and dies for us this is my testimony that I leave with you in the name of Jesus Christ amen. I love you and until next week.
Elder Daniel J. Parkinson