Power of Prayer

Hello BEAUTIFUL FAMILY AND FRIENDS! I really just love you all so so much. Thank you for all your prayers. I don’t have much time so I hope that I can type these stories really fast. I really wanted to share them with you! I know that God is our Heavenly Father and he is anxiously waiting for us to turn to him through prayer. Everyone should pray. It is real and he will answer.

Ok so here you go:

There is this 16 year old, Teresa, who has cousins that are members of the church. A few months ago the cousins invited her to church and immediately she loved it. After the service she told them that she wanted to be baptized. The cousins then went to the Louetta West sister missionaries to fix the charlas for her. After a few lessons, Teresa was passed off to the Elders for some weird reason. The Elders, however, were having no luck with helping Teresa progress because the mom was very much opposing baptism. 2 Sundays ago I met Teresa and the Elders told us to start meeting with her- because technically she lives in our area. When I met her, we immediately became best friends. She is seriously the BEST! A ray of sunshine. We are very much kindred spirits. Anyways, we then set up a cita to visit her this week. We went over on Wednesday and just thought that we would get to know her a little more and try to understand the situation that she was in with her mom. We were talking about how much she loved Youth Conference a few weeks ago and how she is talking to all of her friends about the church and is even praying about going on a mission. Somehow or another we finally got talking about baptism. She was saying how badly she wanted to be baptized and how eager she is to bare her testimony. She told us how lately she has been praying so much that her mom's heart would be soften so that she could get permission to be baptized. She told us that she has been crying and really, really pleading with God that this could happen. So when we invited her to be baptized on the 28th of September, she turned to her mom and her mom said "si esta segura de lo que esta haciendo" and Teresa said "segurisima." She then turned to us and said, my prayer was answered!!! I can get baptized. So I definitely gained a testimony that if we have a sincere heart and faith, our prayers will be answered.

Another really cool story this week. So my last day with Hermana Burnham and Koch we poached into the Louetta area to eat a bionico- my new favorite food: ice cream, crema, granola, and fruit. Anyways, we really weren’t that hungry but for some reason we knew that we had to be there. So we were sitting there waiting for our order and this girl comes up to us. She asks if we are the Mormon missionaries. We obviously, respond saying WE SURE ARE!!! with the biggest grins on our face. She told us that she met with them about a year ago. We were like no way! We talked for a few minutes but she had to leave so she voluntarily gave us her number and we gave her ours- the gulfbank number. Anyways, 2 days later she called the gulfbank hermanas and they made a cita for the Louetta East hermanas to go visit her. Weird because I AM NOW A LOUETTA EAST HERMANA!!! So we went to see her and she told us that she is holding on to a lot of guilt and wants to change her life. She wants to be closer to God. When she used to meet with the missionaries, she was the happiest she ever was and she wanted that again. When she saws us at the Bionicos place, she took that as her sign. I know that God has a plan and that we are all in His hands. We need to have more faith and trust in His timing and ways. They are perfect. I really believe that I am in this area for her. To help her realize the reality of the Atonement. She didn’t want to go to church yet because she doesn’t feel ready but I know that she will get there soon- little by little. The atonement is real. I know that she will be healed.

I was reading a part of my setting apart and it actually talked about how I will come to understand the power of the atonement in my life and the life of others. I know that she is one of those people that I was sent to see. It was a tender mercy and nice transition for me to come to Louetta.

As for everyone else in the area, we don’t know them yet. We have so much work to do. This is a fairly new area and there is a ton of work that needs to be done. Gulfbank prepared me for this. I learned how to work, work, and work there. I can't wait. I am diving into it all here.

I love the ward. I can’t wait until I really get to know them!

There is so much to do. I LOVE IT!

I am so happy.

Crazy Matt was transferred same week as me- remember how we do everything together?

keep smiling,

Hermana Parry