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.

Week 34: Welcome to Dodge

Here we are again! Writing letters! The week goes by so fast, it's insane. 

So, I made it to Dodge City! 

Some random facts that I have discovered about it so far:

-Does not smell like poo

-Is the Cowboy Capital (figures that I would find the Cowboy Capital and live there!)

-The water tower is home to at least 40 vultures (on the plus side, there is hardly any roadkill)

-The hills are more like slight inclines

-Dodge City Days Festival is bigger than Christmas. 

-Includes semi-trucks in parades 

Some things, I just don't understand. Oh well. Goodbyes in Emporia were bitter-sweet. I hated to leave the people, but I know that the Lord has prepared people in Dodge City as well. One of the 1st things that my new companion Sister Fairbourn said to me was "Happy National Hammock Day!" I knew then that we were going to get along jusssssssst fine! She is so funny, and chill. I am so excited to work with her. 

So, I fulfilled my life-long dream of being in a parade....sort of. If you count walking along side of the parade handing out pass-along cards then I was totally in a parade! We passed out an insane number of pass-along cards that day. Oh my goodness. 

How much do you know about family history? Because I didn't know that much until we set up a booth and talked to people about it for 6 hours! I am impressed with how many people in Dodge have already started to do family history! That is my challenge to you folks is to start some family history work! 

My personal favorite moment of the festival was when an elder ran up to us and said, "Quick! Elder Rojas is in a dance off!!" uh....what. Elder+soldier verses 2 eighteen year olds. I dare you to guess who won. It was hilarious!! it's probably on Youtube by now. 

On a more spiritual note, Dodge truly has people who have been prepared. We went to see a potential from a year ago and she accepted to be baptized!! The Spirit was so strong! We walked out of that lesson a little embarrassed by our teaching skills but amazed that the Holy Ghost was able to work through us despite our imperfections. It really is the Lord doing all the work, he just asks us to keep moving forward. 

Deciding to go on a mission really is my best decision so far. The world around you keeps going on but time is frozen for you. The low moments are deeper than I expected but the highs are taller than Mount Everest and makes up for everything. 

Remember that God answers prayers! 

Sister Parry

Goodbyes to the Gonzolez family, I will dearly miss them and the amazing Mexican food! 

Super hard goodbye to Pam :( This is her trying to look serious :) 

The serious didn't last too long. 

I dare you to find a cooler mission president. Wrote and sang a rap on the ukulele. Perfect. 

Goodbyes to Sister Andersen and Hello to Sister Fairbourn

Welcome to the VERY CENTER of America. Don't get too excited folks!

We were biking when the other sisters took pity on us and picked us up. The thermometer actually went up to 125 degrees!

Kansas has a cowboy church. It was bound to happen

So seriously, I wasn't exaggerating! 

Some good ol' stick pull

Week 33: Too Many Twinkies

Woah. 

I cannot believe how fast this transfer has flown by!! 

Well, it is time to say goodbye to Emporia because I am crashing Dodge City this week! It is going to be such a bitter-sweet farewell..The Haddens, Debbie, Pam, Julie..I can't say that it is totally unexpected though, I've been here for 3 transfers! 

So do you remember 2 months ago I told you all this story:

"I love it when the Lord uses crazy situations and turns them into teaching opportunities! It all started when we were riding our bikes in the rain. I was turning and noticed that the ground was getting closer and closer until we met. The best part of falling was that it was at a 4-way stop with no less than 20 people watching the whole thing! LOL Fast forward to after we got to where we were going and I felt a little ridiculous. We were drenched, and our investigator was not even home. Just then, a man waved us down and turns out, he is looking for a church! If I didn't fall earlier, we would have completely missed him! His soul is worth much more than my hip anyways!"

This week, we were at Debbie's and we talk to a man and Sister Andersen tells me that they met him while I was gone on exchanges. He then tells us that he really wants to come to our church!!! HE REALLY CAME!!!!!! We were talking at church and some dots were connected...It was him! He was the one from 2 months ago!!! I couldn't Believe it! The Lord really does work in mysterious ways! 

Tuesday was also pretty eventful. After District Meeting, we get a call from our investigator who is quitting smoking. She was a little beside herself from not having a cigarette, we manage to calm her down with the Book of Mormon and pretty much bought out Walmart's cinnamon flavored anything. She has been cigarette free for 4 days now! Heavenly Father is so proud of this family, I just know it. When we told them that transfers are coming up, Cody promised to take us hunting sometime after the mission...Don't get me excited Cody!! I will follow up in a year! 

One of my favorite moments so far was for sure the Twinkie Festival on Saturday morning.(because this is Kansas and we need no excuse to throw a festival!) You better bet that I was in the Twinkie eating contest!! I couldn't talk Sister Andersen into it, but the elder's and I represented! Elder Daines took 4th overall and I got more twinkies down than Elder Landroche' (turns out that eating 8 twinkies in 4 minutes is not the best idea) Oh well, there were a load of less-actives, and members there so it was so worth it! 

Sister Andersen and I fell in LOVE with a tiny town called Americus. We have someone that lives out there and has been a battle to get a hold of so, we decided that it was worth the miles and drove out there with a list of less-actives to see. Oh my, this town in puny but I love it so much. They have one paved road and one stop light! The person that we were originally trying to see was out of town but we met a less-active who the Lord has definitely prepared to come back into the fold! 

I love you all! Remember that God answers prayers! 

Biggest burrito of my life. Seriously. My heart said DO IT but my stomach said NO :( 

We fell in LOVE with Americus. It only took me 4 1/2 months to get there but hey, better late than never right?

Cute, old Americus church. Now we just got to convert the whole congregation and call it good :)

Road trips!!

Dropped by the elder's apartment to find this. Gross. If you want something done, you got to do it yourself I guess.

Guess what?! Another brown recluse spider :/

This happened. Of course I just "LET" the less-active sitting next to me win.....

it was totally intentional...maybe..

Which is the best face?

BYE Topeka Zone!

Week 32: I need Jesus in my life!!‏

I'm not even going to beat around the bush this week, you have to hear about the Brandi and Cody! 

So, we go over there and it is OPERATION KID. Sister Andersen and I take turns entertaining the very excited 2 year-old and teaching Brandi and Cody. He is absolutely adorable, and if it takes the entire contents of my purse to be dumped on the floor for him to be entertained and the parents to feel the Spirit-so be it! It was so great. Out of no where, Brandi turns to Cody and shouts, "I AM GOING TO CHURCH, NO IF'S AND'S OR BUT'S ABOUT IT! I NEED JESUS IN MY LIFE!!" Cody replied with, "haha, Yes you do!!" 

we taught them about the Word of Wisdom and Cody agreed to be baptized when he comes to know that Joseph Smith was really a prophet!! We told Brandi that the elders could come over to give her a blessing to help her with smoking. I asked Cody if he would be okay with that and laughing he said, "Sure, but do you really think that that will work?!" The Spirit was SO STRONG when we testified to them about the power of the priesthood. The next day, after her blessing, she looked up at us and said, "Wow! that was amazing! If feels like a ton of weight was just lifted off of my shoulders!" So amazing. The Priesthood, the church, it's all true! 

THEN they went shopping to buy a new outfit which they all looked so spiffy when they CAME TO CHURCH!!!! Cody recognized someone and invited them to their baptism! Even the 2 year-old was really quiet during Sacrament meeting until the end...yeah, Operation Kid came back into play: a highlighter, a frog key chain and a load of stickers. We were covered in stickers, but again, if it means that they feel the Spirit, SO BE IT!  

I have discovered the new world of Kansas bugs! There is one that lives in trees and sounds like a house alarm. The other is a microscopic devil called a chigger! They bite you and it itches just as much as a mosquito(which there are a TON of those here as well!) I have well over 20 bites all over my legs! Seriously, I am using anti-itch cream like lotion! The other thing that I discovered this week was that the elders deserve a medal for how many times they fixed Sister Andersen's bike this week! Every single day. 

All week long, I have been praying for a good ol' spiritual rebuking! I have been down in the dumps because we have not found a new investigator in 2 weeks. I got sick and tired of being sad about it so on Friday that was all fixed up. We had an 8-hour meeting in Topeka and it was 8 hours of a Spiritual overload! Every time President Bell talked, I would be rebuked from the Holy Ghost. I had a constant prayer in my heart thanking Heavenly Father for sending the Holy Ghost and asking him to tell me more! And he did! I was loving it! 

From the meeting, we went on exchanges with the STL's. I love exchanges! I always learn so much but something crazy happens every single time. We were driving back to Emporia when I thought to myself that this has been an odly normal exchange. Thinking that was a big mistake. No more than 2 minutes later, we got a call from a guy named Hawk who talked to us for a good 10 minutes. just to give you an idea about our conversation, I said, "Hi, how are you?" 

Hawk: "I am high as a cucumber!"

I promise, I didn't ask HOW HIGH are you! Goodness, we were creeped out but at least he felt impressed to call the missionaries LOL 

Another one of my favorite moments this week was when we ran into our investigator's friend. When he introduced us to his brother he said, 

"These are our friendly neighborhood Mormons!"

I'm pretty sure that every missionary needs a T-shirt with that on it now. I have it all planned out: 

"We are your friendly neighborhood Mormons!" on the front, and the back will say mormon.org. Someone, please, go make that happen! 

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

Sister Parry 

Ps guess who found my bible!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! in Topeka!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Sister Andersen deserves a trophy. She also said that I have never smiled so big like I did during personal study the next morning! YESSSSSSSSSSS

Choose the Right

Studio C anyone?

Remember, God answers prayers! 

After Sacrament meeting....