"I cannot say the smallest part which I feel"

Ok so to start out let me just tell you all how absolutely amazing Hermana Burnham is. She is 19 too and I swear all these little ones are so ready to work! It is absolutely incredible. I am just so excited about Gulfbank right now because we seriously just walk and talk with everyone. We are so sore because we have been tracting basically all day and every day this week. Luckily there were not any more rainstorms so we stayed pretty dry. But really, it is awesome! We have seen so many miracles this week because of the diligence we are trying to have everyday. Its not always easy, especially when you have days when you have absolutely nothing to do, but the scriptures reminded me that if we are patient and long-suffering in all our afflictions, we will be instruments in God's work here in Gulfbank and help bring about many miracles.

Some of the miracles being that we have found one of the tens of thousands that is being prepared here in Gulfbank. This was on one of those days where everything fell through so we were just trying to find service or anyone outside to talk to. We had the feeling to go to apartment 259 in "sesame street" (we call it sesame street because of all the colorful apartments there) and there was a woman named Maria Teresa Rico there. She basically just talked for the first hour but she said how she could just tell we were people of God and that she we were sent there because God had told us that she needed us. I honestly cannot tell you everything that she said because Spanish is still pretty foreign to me but boy. The spirit is good. I felt that we needed to sing- Mas cerca Dios de ti, so very randomly i suppose, I asked her if it would be alright if we sang for her. After the first two words she was all tears. She just explained how she could really feel the love of God in the room and that she loved that feeling. She was all excited to join us at church on Sunday because she knew that that is a place where she would be able to feel those feelings once again. Unfortunately she wasn’t able to come to church but next week we have a cita with her and she invited 2 other families. Do you guys realize all the potential that is? We are talking about future relief society presidents, primary presidents, young men leaders, ash!

Keep praying for the missionary effort because this is only possible with the prayers and faith of EVERY single member worldwide. Missionary work is so hard but it is SO important. This is eternal salvation. I cant even express to you all how much this work means, not only to me, but to our Heavenly Father. He wants all of his children to return back to them and the only way they can do that is through fe, arrepentimiento, bautismo, el espiritu santo, y perseverar hasta al fin.

Also we met two of the cutest little girls ever. It was really late at night and we were tracting and this sassy 10 year old opens the door. I told her we were missionaries and asked if her parents were home. She said no but quickly responded that "yall can talk with me because I love talking about God." We wiped out el libro de mormon por los ninos and shared when Jesus Christ blessed all the children when he appeared in the Americas. They loved it so much. We left but at 10:25 that night, we got a phone call from them and they both were asking when we were going to come back to talk more about God. How tender is that? We have tried going back multiple times but have had no luck. We hope that they will always remember the spirit that they felt and that they are special daughters of our Heavenly Father.

I read "A Consecrated Missionary" by Elder Todd Callister this week. If you can get your hands on that, READ IT! It does not just apply to missionaries but every single one of us. It is probably one of my all time favorite talks. It talked about laying everything on the line for one's salvation. For me that means my many insecurities and my pride for not wanting to speak Spanish because it is not yet perfected. I have come a long way. Last transfer I let my native speaker comp do everything. But this transfer there isn’t one person that I don’t say hi to because this work is just THAT important. Elder Callister really helped motivate me to give all that I am to God. Not just now on the mission, but always. I am so grateful for the atonement and the enabling power of the atonement because I mess up everyday, I am weak. But because of the atonement, the possibilities are endless and I can truly do all things according to my faith. Just look at the scriptures. You have Nephi. His brethren tied him up and he couldn’t escape. However, he prayed to God for the strength to break the bands, which bound him, and then he twisted and nudged some more to break the bands and boom, he was free. God does not take us out of our afflictions, but rather, the strength to overcome them. How beautiful is that! It gives me the hope that I can overcome anything in my life when I rely on the atonement of Jesus Christ.

Anyways, that’s all for this week! I love you lots and can't wait to talk to you on Sunday. That freaks me out that it is already that time. Love YALL!

brazos y besos

Hermana Parry

PS. Funny story, so this morning I was studying in Alma and when I went to sign on to my email, I went to go look at Matt's emails and he was telling me that I need to go read this certain part of Alma. Funny part is that that was the exact spot that I read this morning and I had made a goal to more fully incorporate those verses into my missionary efforts this week. I just thought it was so great because here we are so far apart yet still on the same wavelength.

Bishop Marin's Home

Roads in Gulfbank

We are having fun

Tracting our area all day everyday...