TBH

         I love my mission! I am learning so much and growing so much! It is insane! I can not believe this has happened! I am almost 3 months out!
        So it is time to be real with you all....I am having a really hard time. So my trainer said that this is the hardest area she's ever served in and she has 2 months left.... Yeah we are constantly trying to be positive, that is the key here. Because we have a small area and majority of the ppl are Mormon and those who we try to talk to already know and have made up there mind they are not interested. And the girl, April, that I asked her if she wanted to be baptized and she said yes. She was doing so well!! Reading and taking notes!! And then out of nowhere she was ignoring us and blocked sister Pajaro on Facebook and now we had to drop her. It was the saddest thing! And then a less active dropped us. And then we can not find any investigators. We are trying everything! It has been so hard. We keep thinking what are we doing wrong. Or "what lack I yet" and we have not been getting an answer either! That is annoying as well. But then sister Pajaro found something during her personal study! And it was an answer to our prayers. So it was in a talk. I forgot who it was by and what exactly it said but it said that when we face trials and hardships and it is not because of a consequence of our disobedience but it is because the lord wants you to stretch and grow and that you are ready to do this. And I was like wow.... I understand! Obviously the lord wants us to learn something. And we still have to be obedience and the best we can be. But I have learned so much! I at least know now that it can only get better from here! And I also want to share this because if anyone else feels like they our discouraged! Remember this! I have such a strong testimony that the lord wants speaks to us! In various ways and is always looking out for us! Just last Monday we had ran out of money for groceries and then randomly this member from sister Pajaro's last area was here and insisted that she paid for us. And she had no idea! And then we did not have anyone sign up for dinner then the member we are living with asked if we were eating anywhere and offered to have us over for dinner! It was beyond crazy! I know Heavenly Father looks out for his servants!
                I love the people here! All these family's are so awesome and perfect member missionaries! I wish one thing though...... That missions were not so stressful! It is a bit tiring but it is worth it! I know the lord has sent me here to learn, and help. And I'm so glad and grateful for this opportunity! I am also so happy to have a loving family and that my brother served a mission and I can not wait to see him because we both would have grown so much!
             So get this! The members I am staying with has a son who was in my zone at the MTC! He is going to Sweden. I met him! And apparently his whole district got reassigned!!!! And guess where he got reassigned to?! LA!!!! We switched places! ....kinda haha. Super awesome! But I really love packages and letters!!!! FYI! I am thankful for all your support! And love!! Love you all!!!!

Sister Parker and Sister Pajaro arriving home after the stake service day. Each ward had a different project. They picked up liter along the Salt River.  Sister Parker is doing well.  Cheerful and enthusiastic!

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So this week...oh man I feel like I am loosing my memory. I can not think of anything exciting that has happened.

I get an ipad for the mission tomorrow! So that will make taking pictures and emailing a lot better, and I can also read my emails everyday, but I can not write any until p-day. So if you want to send me something that you want me to read right away I can! So that is cool!

Today I got to play volley ball! Yay finally!!! It was so much fun! I loved it!!

I realized something... I am going to miss my brothers homecoming talk and his cute little accent! But it is a sacrifice that I am willing to make.

I love it here! I am falling in love with the people here! Everyone is so nice! We did an art class Saturday to get to know the youth and find new investigators at the same time.. maybe, haha. It was fun! We did the balloons filled with paint and poping them with darts! It was cool! It turned into just washing your bodies with paint.

We are not having a lot of success with having new investigators and baptisms are not working out. But we are still successful, because we are planting seeds and talking to everyone! We can only do so much, the rest is up to them. They can choose to accept it or not, sometimes it is not the right time. We are just a part of that process and just won't see the end result. Our purpose is to invite everyone to come to Christ and help them receive the restored gospel.

I love this mission so much! Some days are harder than others but on average I am doing great.

You can always send me letters and packages. Those make my week!!! My address is 2525 n 32nd st. 85213 Mesa, AZ. I love all of your emails as well!!

Be safe and remember someone is always there for you! Sorry no pictures this week! Next week I will have some!

The Mish!

Hey!! So I  have been here in beautiful Mesa Arizona for 3 weeks now!! Crazy! A part of me feels like I have been here for 3 months! Another part of me feels like I have been here for 3 days!

So I am sorry I have not been going to very much detail about my mission. So the sisters here are pampered! We get a car! Sister Pajaro does not have a license so I drive! My struggle now is to maintain the speed limit.... but I am doing a lot better than before the mission! It is a new car to! super nice as well!

Then Sundays; So since we cover three wards we go to 6 hours of church... I mean not to bad right? but we go to all three sacraments, and all three gospel doctrine and the last wards relief society, something like that. I am still getting the hang of things and the schedule. These wards are so great!! Too great! My stomach is expanding! I do not think I have ever been able to eat this much.. plus I think there is something wrong with me. I never get like full full. I could continue to eat! I ate 6 tacos and 2 brownies! I could have eaten more but we had to go. The good thing is I am back to my normal weight, I just hope it doesn't increase too much... I need to exercise more. Haha, we try!!

I am struggling with language study because I have no motivation to do it. Because right now it is not useful to me. I would rather be doing other things that are more useful! But I am still studying! We will see how it goes in the long run! Oh and there is an elder here, who went to Trinidad for his mission! English speaking! He went home after 4 months of being there because of medical reasons then went back out but got sent to mesa instead. So he told me a few cool stories so that was awesome!

So awesome thing!!! We got a new investigator! His name is....Joseph Smith!!! Crazy!! He doesn't look anything like him but we are always saying "we're going to teach Joseph Smith",  "oh, we met Joseph Smith". It is pretty awesome!

We had a service project which was way awesome! We helped cheer on the contestants in the triathlon! and I guess it made a huge impact! Because so many of the runners told the workers, and head people "seeing the missionaries cheer us on, at the finish was the highlight of the day" that was so sweet!! It makes me really appreciate the tag I wear and what the effect it has on others.

So I am in love with the people here. I am going to be so sad to leave, and it has only been three weeks! The family who we are staying with are so nice! They bought us a pumkin and strawberries and took us out to lunch! They feel like my family. I love living with them!

Well nothing crazy this week.  My bug bites are healing thanks to a member and her oils. I love mesa. I love being a missionary, and I love all of you.

 so this was a pic of us in red shirts from our service project. so much fun! I tried so hard not to dance.

 then this is a pictures from the hike

  Service project

 Service project

So this baby is so adorable it hurts. I want one!!! I am obsessed with him! His name is Noah!

All below are more pictures of our hike on Pday

Toe Ring

 Conference Lunch in a Citrus orchard in Mesa 5.



So this was when my trainer told me we are not allowed to wear toe rings on the mission.... you can not even see our toes why does it matter!? But trying to be a righteous and worthy missionary I wanted to live by exact obedience.. and I took it off.

                                                  Family Home Evening with the Kerr family

More pictures

 So this is my zone! Yes we all wanted to have double chins...we are just a good looking group aren't we?

                                                    We got to go to the Mesa Temple!! So beautiful!

 Zone

And yes...that elk is real.

Barefoot

Hey!

So it has been 2 weeks now! Crazy to think I have been here for that long but also seems like it is super short at the same time. It all just flies by!

So I extended my first baptismal invitation! and.......she said yes!!! It was such a beautiful moment! She is 17 and from Samoa. English is her second language but her English is so good! Anyways I asked her and she said yes. Then we said asked her if she would prepare herself to be baptized on the 31st(Halloween), and she said yes. Then she started to get emotional and cry. There was a long moment of silence but it was amazing, I got a little teary eyed and the room was just filled with the spirit. She then explained how she has been looking for something like this in her life and howshe will be more happy. It was so awesome. That was one of the couple moments I have had here where I get lost in the work and love my mission and the people. I love this feeling and being able to watch this happen! Watch people change and come unto Christ. It is so beautiful! And I get to have a front row seat! This is what makes being a missionary so awesome.

Me and my companion get a long so well! I am so happy to have her as my trainer I love her! We joke around but can still get the work done. We seem to have a good balance with that.

So funny story!! We were eating dinner at a members house, the Campbells. No they do not own the soup, but they sure are living in luxury! Huge house!! It is beautiful. So we are eating there and she has young kids the oldest is 17, and the youngest is like 8. Well we noticed that they have a basement, no surprise there, but! they also have a slide in the wall that goes down to the basement! Me and my companion were like oh! We got to go down it! We took a video of it I will send it to you all! But I took my shoes off for that obviously. Well after we had our fun we all went back up and ate dessert, probably some of the best gelato I have ever had, and shared a spiritual message. Then we are walking out the door saying bye, we are busy we can not stay there forever. So we were walking out and I took a couple steps outside and she almost closed the door when I saw little toes...I FORGOT MY SHOES! So I quickly turn around and had to tell her I forgot my shoes! We were all laughing! It was  little embarrassing! At least I noticed it right away rather than when we got to our next appointment.

General conference was this weekend! and boy was it amazing! I took like 8 pages of notes! Elder Lawrence and Hales were so good!!! What lack I yet? I loved that! I felt like I was in spiritual school, there was so much I was learning, I loved it!

On Sunday we found a new investigator! Guess what his name is!? Joseph Smith!!! No joke! He is so awesome the whole time we were teaching him I just had a good feeling about him. It was an awesome moment!

So I am really loving it here! The people are so nice! The weather is a little warm but it is OK we have a car and it is starting to cool down.

Well I love every single one of you so much and I miss you all! But there is work to be done so I must go! Till next week!! Don't worry I have pictures and a couple videos to send to you all.

So that is me and my companion! Sister Pajaro! That is the inside of our apartment! I forgot to take a pic of the outside! And yes those are bug bites on my leg... I am getting eaten alive out here!  And that is one of the members in our wards! He is the mayor of mesa actually!