Week 38:

Have you ever felt like you just ran through a whirlwind, jumped over a flaming pit of doom, while juggling and LOVED every second of it? That's sort of how I feel after this last week! 

Lets start with the Chuck! 

It was getting close to 9:00 PM and a dog had followed us for over a mile. Not knowing what to do, we called the other sisters and loaded up the dog in the car. After a whole adventure, we ended up taking the dog to the police station and then to the animal shelter and still making it home by 9:30. Save a dog...check! 

I have learned to do so much in a skirt since December. We managed to help people move 3 times and assemble a bike rack...modestly. Yes. One of my favorite things to do is to walk up to someone and say, "Hi, we don't look like movers, but we really are! Can we help you with that?" It makes for some pretty interesting conversations though! 

I absolutely love to tell people how much God loves them. We met a man the other day that has been through a lot and is questioning if God even exists. I asked him if his kids could do anything that would make him not love them anymore. Of course he said no. I told him that is exactly how God is. He loves us no matter what, we had to get a little blunt with him and tell him that God is reaching out for him and wants to get closer to his son. Watching his face was interesting. I could tell that the Spirit was working with him and that he was starting to feel-for maybe the first time in a long time-the love that his Heavenly Father has for him very individually. 

Another miracle was when we were on splits with some of the young women in the ward. After a lesson, I felt prompted to walk down the street in the opposite direction of all of our plans. As we were walking, we ran into a former investigators friend! She stopped us and really wanted to set up a time to talk with us. She told us of an experience that she had a few weeks ago..Long story short: She was on her way to kick missionaries off of her friend's porch when the Spirit told her, "You sit down, I am working here!" Now she wants to know why God was working with us and wants to know what the crazy Mormons are all about! I told her that an even crazier thing is that we hear stories like that all of the time! 

Dodge City is erupting!! This weekend alone had 3 baptisms in this ward! One of them was not even going to happen until next week! That does not even include the one from last week and the ones that are going to happen this week! Miracles happen especially when President Bell shows up!

Our focus has been primarily on getting Cindy ready to be BAPTIZED THIS SATURDAY!!!!!!!!!!! She is so ready and trying her hardest to change her life so that she can come closer to Christ! She watched someone get baptized yesterday and as soon as they came up out of the water all she said was, "Wow." When we were talking about it later she said that "It was beautiful" I love to see how she is in touch with the Spirit! 

OHHHHHHHHH I just got news from Emporia that BRANDI WAS BAPTIZED!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH I AM BESIDE MYSELF WITH JOY!!!!!!!! 

Both of these women have worked so hard and are overcoming so much to come closer to Christ by being baptized! I am so happy and proud of them! They are making strides and are great examples for me! 

As a missionary happiness is...

Not having time to each lunch because there are so many baptisms going on

Blisters

Icy Hot

wearing cat hair, dog slobber, and cigarette smoke

105 degrees and humid

Hearing someone say, "I know."

Crying with someone

Hearing a font fill up 

Favorite conversation of the week

Police station lady: "Im sorry, there is no room for the dog and all of our cops are on a pretty                                      major scene right now"

Sister R: "But we have a curfew." 

I love and miss you! Remember that God answers prayers!! 

So very Kansas

Hugs and Kisses

Where am I, Fiji?!

There goes the Mormons...with their cucumber..

We're in the heartland <3

Just enjoying the view.

Emillo is baptized!!

Someone didn't get the orange memo..

Week 37: Bringing the family back together!

Mi Familia! 

As you can see, I am learning SO MUCH Spanish here in Kansas! Jokes, jokes! All I can say is:

"Hi................Sister Parry......The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints........Jesus Christ!!......Thank you.........bye."

Yeah. Good thing that I am not a Spanish Sister! 

One of the Spanish missionaries taught me the coolest thing! So this is how you spell mission in Spanish: "Mision" If you divide the word in half you get 2 words: "Mi sion" which translates into "My Zion" in English! My mission truly is my own personal Zion! 

So, miracles happen every day in Kansas! The most recent one happened while we were tracking. We knocked on a door a found a sign that said, "Woodruff's" on it. I laughed and said, "Do you think that they are related?" An elderly couple let us in and we talked to them for a while. He told us that his ancestor was the head of the Mormon Church once.

WHAT. 

I almost died. They were catholic but let us testify to them of modern-day prophets, it was so amazing! I thought that we were going to get the Woodruff family back together...not yet. They were not interested. Some day, they might be. 

Later in the week, we get a call from a member that told us a random girl added her on facebook and wanted to learn about Mormons. We were so pumped!! When we went to go meet her, it turned out to be a joke! A returned missionary that I served around for a while showed up instead! I have mixed emotions but it was great to catch up with her and take her out on team-ups with us! 

One of my favorite moments of the week was going to a Devotional for recent coverts, investigators, and less-actives given by our mission president. It was so amazing! He asked a few recent converts to bear their testimonies and talk about powerful! He then let anyone go up and it was fantastic to hear from those who are just learning about the church. The Spirit was so strong and nearly everyone was crying. Afterwards, I was talking to an investigator from Nepal. Woah. She is a spiritual giant! She has known missionaries for years, but now knows that this is where God has been leading her! 

My other favorite moment of the week was trading Cindy's coffee and coffee pot for Mountain Dew. She is so excited to be baptized on the 30th! I am so excited for her! Her past may have been rough but she is ready to turn to the Lord for help and dedicate her life to him. People never cease to amaze me. Seriously, these people that have gone through so much and are willing to change their lives to have the truth of the gospel with them. I love this work so much. 

One thing stuck out to me. We were talking to a sister in the ward who once was a missionary as well. When she was describing her mission experience she said "hmmm...I wouldn't say that it was fun but it was so great and amazing" That shocked me. Serving the Lord is the funnest thing that I have ever done! Yes, this is serious work and I need to work my very hardest, but I am having a blast doing it! I cannot count the blessings that I am getting and the miracles that I am seeing! 

I hope that you all have a fantastic week! Love you! Miss you! And remember that God answers prayers! 

Sister Parry

How to catch a fly 101

Excuse me while I go paint my roof with my broom

Made a new friend

Oh Kansas, why do you do this to me?

I have found nothing that says we cannot bribe our investigators to come to church with pancakes...

Chilln' with the elders, whatevs.

DODGE CITY

Selfies with Mama Bell

They are the best Mission Parents that any missionary could ever ask for!

Lehi's dream

Good trade! 

Week 36: "It changed me"

Another week gone by, so crazy! 

This week was so good like usual! The Lord has truly prepared his children here in Dodge and the work is starting to explode! Every day the Spirit tells me that even though Dodge City has a tiny ward, singing in Spanish and English-it is going to be a stake some day! We are laying the foundation and baptizing future stake presidents and temple workers. There are 4 sets of missionaries in this small city but we are all so busy! 

Yesterday was so crazy, the kind of day that makes you spiritually exhausted and praying for Pday to come! We spent the morning making over 100 pancakes to serve to investigators before church. Only like 4 people came to our pancake party but 16 investigators were at church! Our average is more like 3 as a district so it was insane! Sacrament meeting was more like a missionaries nightmare of sorts. Deep doctrine was brought up, crazy stories, but the Spirit was strong so that is what counts! Afterwards was a baptism for the elder's investigator and it was all in Spanish. :) One of the young men who is also a convert agreed to invite our investigator to be baptized afterwards. He said that he would talk to his parents about it. 

 The conversation with the parents was pretty intense. They are both investigators as well but it really hit them that their 11-year old son wants to do this for real. They talked to their son and encouraged him to really take time to think about it. I spent the entire hour praying for the Holy Ghost to be present! This kid is so prepared! This is what he said after watching the baptism: 

"It changed me. You could tell that the guy had some bad in his life before, but when he came up out of the water, it was like he was a new person-like a fresh start. It made me want to be a follower of Jesus Christ!" 

I have never heard anyone describe baptism like this boy did!

We also met the sweetest old lady this week. She has learnd from the missionaries before and even was going to get baptized. When she got sick before her baptism, her daughter told the missionaries that her mom was no longer interested. She told us that she still believes that Joseph Smith was a prophet, this is true and that she wants to be baptized!! When we went on Saturday to see her, she said that her daughter won't let her live with her if she continues to meet with us. So she is trying to move out. It amazes me what people are willing to do to have the gospel in their lives. Miracles happen every single day, and I get to have a front row seat! 

This week a lot of prayers were said, and a lot of Icy-Hot was used, you know, same old, same old. Living the life. :) 

I have been pondering a lot about Prayers. At the end of every letter that I write, I always say, "Remember that God answers prayers!" He does, every single one. I have been thinking about what we need to do to get that answer. I am learning that we all need to be like the Brother of Jared. He had not only had to come up with his own answer,but he had to do everything that he could to make it happen! He climbed the entire mountain again with the stones in his hands without knowing if the Lord was going to say yes to his idea or not! We need to do the same! If someone is wondering when/if they should get baptized, maybe they need to set their own date, and work towards it with full intent of getting into the water that day. Maybe God will not tell them right away if this is the right path for them or maybe he will wait a while to see if they will continue to walk towards it. It is a big leap of faith but it is so worth it. 

I love you all, I hope that you are making memories and having the time of your life! 

Remember that God answers prayers! 

Sister Parry 

Companion study at the laundromat!

Y'know, just a little photo shoot while doing the laundry nbd.

A little friend joined us at church! 

So Kansas.

Week 35: Jesus is My Best Pal!

I know that I say this every month, but I CANNOT BELIEVE THAT IT HAS BEEN 8 MONTHS ALREADY!!!!!! Ahhh, next month I will hit my 1/2 way mark! Sister Fairbourn and I had a long talk about how short 18 months is to be a missionary. We decided that we are not going to waste a minute of the Lord's time here in Kansas. 

We had the best Specialized Zone training! We were blindfolded and walked through Lehi's dream. The Spirit was so strong, I learned so much, I can't even begin to list it all! The biggest thing that I took away from it was walking out of the room actually. There was a picture of Jesus and it just struck me. I thought about he is our guide and how if we can focus our lives and attention on him, everything will work out. He might bring you through thick and thin, but he WILL bring you through it. 

We had such an amazing lesson with Maria on Saturday. We watched a video about reaching our potential and Sister Fairbourn gave such a heartfelt testimony about reaching our next level of happiness. We talked to her about how we often get comfortable where we are at in life and forget that God has so much more in store for us. We asked Maria what she thinks is the next step to achieve more happiness. She looked at us and said, "I know. I know that God wants me to be baptized." It was so powerful! No one in that room had dry eyes! 

Sunday was a trail of faith. We had several people planning on coming to church no matter what. When no one came, we were pretty devastated. It is so hard to feel the Spirit so strongly with someone and watch them not respond to it. We decided that instead of letting this get in the way, we are going to let this give us a new perspective and motivate us even more. This is the Lord's work and His children that we are working with. 

This week we spent so much time volunteering for Dodge City Days. I spent just as much time wearing a Tshirt as I did wearing a skirt! So weird! My personal favorite was the rodeo. I ALMOST got to go in. Taking tickets and watching the big screen counts right?? The good news is that acording to the members here, the elders made it into the newspaper at least twice this week from volunteering! So great! 

Favorite testimony from Sunday:

"I'd like to bear my testimony, I know that I am good at soccer, I want a basketball...........I know that Jesus is my best Pal! In the name of Jesus Christ amen!......can I have my cookie now?"

I hope that you all had a fantastic week! I love and miss you all! Remember that God answers prayers! 

Sister Parry 

Sister Runia, Sister Fairbourn, the pups and me. just chillin'

How many things can you fit in a tiny car? too many. ACTUALLY, can you change the caption to this:

"Missions. They are secretly one big jigsaw puzzle"

What on Earth are we going to do when she leaves on her mission in a month!?!

I got a new bike! 

                                                         Stuck behind a tractor for an eternity? Welcome to Kansas.