Week 41: Fall is Here

Hello hello! 

Woo-wee! What a week! Bear with me while I try to tell you about it! 

The week started off a bit rough, on Monday, we got a call from a recent convert and they were feeling super overwhelmed and does not want to be involved with the church anymore. I had no idea how to respond. Before my mission, I always thought that missionaries just always knew the right thing to say, but I quickly learned otherwise! I sat there praying, "Heavenly Father, this is your child, and I don't know what to say. All I know is to love them." That was crazy and super hard. BUT I trust God and I know that they have a firm testimony. All will be well in it's own due time. 

I know that I said this last week but seriously, training  Sister Bringhurst = the Lord training me. I need the information and the role-plays way more than she does. I have less time to think about myself because I am trying to stay busy and focused with helping her lay the foundation for the rest of her mission. 

This week, we were having lunch at a restaurant with the mission president's wife when some of my favorite music started playing. I usually just tune it out but this time, there was nothing I wanted more than to ask them to turn it off! Seriously, my stomach started to hurt and I started to feel sick. haha I guess that a mission really changes you. Some day I will be the most awkward RM ever and it will be a blast. 

We got to witness such a great miracle this week! When a new investigator wasn't home, I felt prompted to knock on the house next door. A lady let us in immediately! We quickly found out that she was baptized in California 20 years ago and has not been to church in 7 years! She told us that she has been wanting to take her family back to church! Plus, her sister in law is Cindy who was just baptized! WHAT. It was so cool to see a big chain of events lead us to her! The Lord truly prepares people and it is so cool to have a front-row seat! 

This week, I prayed that we would find solid investigators who are ready to accept the restored gospel into their lives. And God delivered! We were blessed to find 7 new investigators this week and quite a few of them are solid! I am so excited to work with them! The are so sincere and just want to know truth from God.  

I love this crazy, adventurous, never-boring, hard, busy lifestyle! It's not easy but the Lord really does not ask much from me. A year and a half is nothing compared to what the Savior did for me. I love you all! 

Remember that God answers prayers! 

Sister Parry

Just put this up a few weeks ago

Jesus.

And we walked, and walked, and walked and walked.......

You can have our car, I'm down with the stagecoach! 

Tracting! 

sent from my I pad 

Week 40: He Really does Answer Prayers

Hello!

This week was a whirlwind, it seems like Monday was forever ago and so much has happened in between. Transfer week.....Sister Fairbourn and Sister Huff left us along with Kassandra, who left on her mission, so emotional! Monday night, almost all of us were bawling! Goodbye's were hard but we did it. 

On Wednesday, 3 of us were driving to Wichita early for a trainer's meeting when we passed by a sunflower field. Now you would ASSUME that we would just say, "oh how pretty!" and take a picture while driving by. But that is not what happened. I have been DYING to see sunflowers ever since I found out that I was going to Kansas over a year ago. This is the only time that I will ever be serving in Kansas when there will be sunflowers. So, when we drove past this sunflower field, we got a little excited. 

By excited, I mean that ALL CHAOS broke loose! I wish that I was exaggerating but all 3 of us started screaming and I was in tears. We pulled over to the side of the road and ran down a hill to get to our beloved sunflowers. I got so excited that I totally fell, pretty much a face full of dirt, but I didn't even care because I was in the presence of a sunflower field! Long story short, we frolicked in the field before hitting the road again. It was all soooooo worth it to walk into our meeting late and covered with mud. 

I then got to meet my daughter Sister Bringhurst!!!!!! She is fresh from the MTC serving from Pocatello, Idaho. I feel like I am not training her, she is training me! She is so ready to preach the gospel and is so beyond where I was at when I first got into the field. Training is going great, it's just as hard as I thought it would be, but this is way more for me than it is for her. I am learning so much. 

The middle of the week was pretty tough, really fun, but all of our appointments fell through. I felt so bad, because I want Sister Bringhurst to see all that Dodge is capable of. By the weekend, we were scraping to hit our mission standard-ugh. We were having dinner with the STLs on Sunday and when the found out they were nice enough to go on splits with us. We had an hour and a half to find 3 new investigators and get 1 member present. In 40 minutes, Sister Judy and I found a family, and the other sisters found a girl at the park! I was in awe, God truly does answer prayers. All we needed was one more member present lesson, but the appointment fell through. While we were at the member's house there was an AMAZING 17-year old girl who God has prepared to have the gospel. We had a great talk with her and she really wants to change her life. We were on cloud 9. God is so nice to us. Here we are, imperfect servants but willing to work. God was kind enough to allow us to see a miracle. 

I learned a few big lessons this week. First, is the importance of faith, once when we allow our faith to dwindle, God does not have much to work with. 2nd is that GOD REALLY DOES ANSWER PRAYERS. Truly! I was in the middle of stressing about the week and while we were praying, I couldn't get a quote by Gordon B. Hinkly out of my head:

"The best antidote I know for WORRY is WORK. The best medicine for DESPAIR is service. The best cure for WEARINESS is the challenge of HELPING someone who is even more tired." 

I never get tired of watching God do his work. I am so grateful for the hard moments, because that is where we grow the most. I love you all, I miss you, but remember that 

God truly does answer prayers!

The Arkell fam oh my goodness, I love them so much! 

I can't handle it

OVERWHELMED with joy

Definitely in the top 10 happiest moments of my mission

Posterity! My mom Sister Runia, and my daughter Sister Bringhurst

Week 39: Just be Happy

Okay, I have to get it out!

CINDY WAS BAPTIZED!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

This has been a crazy road with her but she did and it and has been so prepared! Preparing her has pretty much taken up the entire week but it is so worth it. I love to hear her testimony about how this is the beginning of her new life. :) My personal favorite was when we were talking to her right after she was baptized. We asked her what she was doing when she woke up so early that morning and she said, "Just being happy." I loved that. That is what this gospel does. This came from someone that has spent her whole life trying to find happiness and has finally found the beginning of it! So amazing. 

This week is transfer week.....I am going to train a brand new sister missionary here in Dodge! WHAT. I am so excited but really nervous at the same time. My mission president always says that the Lord calls the weak and the simple to do his work, so here I am! We realized last night that 1/2 of the missionaries in Dodge City are leaving...and had such a spiritual experience with 2 great families last night. We were all crying as everyone gave their testimony and advice to 2 sisters. One who is going home from her mission tomorrow and one who is leaving to go on her mission tomorrow. That night, most of us had a good, long(and much needed) cry session.

We had one of the most spiritual lessons of my mission this week. It was amazing! She was a little hesitant at first but came with an open mind and heart. By the end, we were all in tears and just soaked up the Spirit. The next day, we received a text from her that said that she no longer wants to meet with us. We were devastated. Missionary work is the best thing that I have ever done but it is so hard to watch someone feel the Spirit and then say no to it. I am praying and praying that we will be able to work with her in the future. 

It is so crazy to think how much I have changed since December 4th. This week, I hit my 1/2 way point. An elder said something this week that really struck me:

"When I first got out on my mission, I thought that God needed me. I know realize, that I needed him." 

So true. He has given me this opportunity to learn, grow, cry, laugh, serve, and see miracles happen right in front of my eyes. I love you all, Remember that God answers prayers! 

When we realized that we were both going to train...

Dodge City

The good old seminary days

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.