S U R I N A M E

So,  we made it back in Suriname! and I am staying with zr. Vernes as my comp again! I am so happy for that! I love her. We are in Parimaribo North in a new apartment. It is relaly nice. I have been in this area like my whole mission hahaha. It is my 7th transfer in this area and branch. Haha crazy! I love it because I am taking the person who I am (which is better than before) and have become from my time in Curacao and putting it all in this area. I am excited! We are blanking the area, but I now have developed all my contacting skills, so I am prepared for this transfer hah. It was so great to see all the members again. I am happy to be back. Really sad to have left Curacao, but also happy to see familiar faces again. I love these members and me and zr. Vernes are just so pumped to work and meet new people! 

We had to stay in trinidad for 4 or 5 days because our flight got cancelled to Suriname. So we spent Thanksgiving there....and we did not do anything special. We actually forgot it was Thanksgiving till an investigator said oh happy Thanksgiving, and we all were like...oohhhhh yeahh! Todays thanksgiving! Ha totally forgot. But it is ok we were doing the work, that's all that matters.

I love you all!! 

I attached more photos this week! 

I wish you all the best! 

Lobi!!! 

zuster Parker

Below are pictures from my last days in Curacao, a lot of saying goodbye to best friends!

Saying Goodbye to my Curacao compas, our last dat together

Ouch, my blister!!

Saying Goodbye to some awesome members in Curacao

an awesome member who I absolutely love!

An awesome member and his best friend (who is our investigator!)


Me and Sister Taylor eating McKroket!!

EMERGENCY TRANSFERRED AGAIN!

Well I got a call a couple nights ago..and I am going back to Suriname! I have a mix of bitter sweet emotions right now. I am excited to go back to my home country (I like to call it that:) and see the other members and missionaries. But also super sad because I have to say goodbye to all the missionaries and members here! :(. But that is life as a missionary. Constantly saying goodbye. But! you are also constantly saying hello! Meeting new people, so I am grateful for that otherwise it would get pretty sad out here if we were just saying goodbye. I am so grateful to have served here in curacao! I learned so much and I grew sooo much as well! I will miss my companions! They are not only beautiful!!! but amazing missionaries. I knew that I would not have been able to get through this past transfer without them and they have helped me to be a better person and and a better missionary. They have a place in my heart, always! 

We got rejected hard this week. Literally doors slamming in our face and people yelling at us...hahaha but it builds character right? 

Sorry i can not write as much I am in a little bit of a time crunch I have a lot I need to do before I head back to suriname tonight!. 

But I love all your support!!!! 

Top it All Off With a Few Jelly Beans

Well we finished our last week of the transfer, and we got the transfer calls...we are all staying!! Super happy about that! I am grateful because I love these girls! 

Well it was still hard this week. We walked basically around the whole island! I guess it makes for a good leg workout right? You got to get something positive our of it! This transfer we got a whole lot better at contacts, because we filled up all our contact pages we have in the planner, plus put all our contacts on the potential investigators page and the members page. because we ran out of room. Now missionaries know that is a lot! Haha. We even had to add pages to our planners for the contacts..hahaha. I have never had this problem before, at least we know we are talking to everyone.  

A few miracles i would like to talk about: One was that we went to an investigators' place late for our appointment, turns out she was not there but her dad was, and we were able to contact him! Turns out he is interested! He was a huge answer to our prayers! Because our investigator (his daughter), is only 16 and so it is better if you teach the whole family. We had just finished fasting about them! We had gotten a ride from Sister Scott and we showed up at night, and he just gotten there when we did. We pulled up by his house and said a prayer. Well his lights were but when we got up to his house and he turned them off. Once he saw who we were he came out and said how he is from Venezuela, and they normally are on high alert at night so we scared him by coming by at night! So sad but also funny that we scared him. Anyways, he is way cool!! We had a lesson (probably the best how to begin teaching we have ever done), and she cried when she said the closing prayer! So sweet! 

We had a Family Home Evening last week and we had to keep all these jelly beans in our mouths and sister Taylor started to laugh and they all flew out of her mouth! It was like a waterfall of jelly beans! They were everywhere! We all lost it! so funny! 

All in all it was an awesome week! 

I love you all! and all of your support! 

Lobi!

zuster Parker

Muddy streets

My comp getting some puppy love!

Mission tanlines!

Presents from the Smithlines who went to the states

Here they are!

Study time!!

Heavenly Father Works Through Ice Cream

Well I do not like being a Debby Downer at all. One of the things we are focusing on is beging happy, positive and humerous in all situations. Having said that; this transfer has been one of the hardest transfers. We have contacted a lot, a lot a lot, but no one we meet is ready, and willing. It has been a little frustrating, because we are being obedient and diligent, we talk to literally everyone we see, and we are doing the best we can. Sometimes we have to go through hard things because Heavenly Father wills it, and I am 100% ok with that. I am just trying to learn from this situation and I have learned a lot! One thing is how important it is to be positive. It really helps you to endure all things. There is no point in bewing mad or sad because that does not help. It is not productive at all. Being positive is super productive. There have been times, I am not going to lie, where I have not been the best with this. When you jare just drenched in sweat and burnt (my fault for forgetting my sunscreen), and you get rejected, your companion is sick, she gets hit by a motorcycle and has to stay in all week (good thing there is three of us and the other sister was sick so she got to stay with her this week). But let my tell you of a miracle last night; we were just so pooped, big time. It was the last day of a long week and we are at the end of a hard transfer. We went to see a recent convert, who lives in a trailer in the parking lot of this gelato place. Well this car pulls into the gelato place close by to us while we are waiting for Luis, and he says hey.  We are like; hey, how are you! He asked "Are you going to get some ice cream?" (and he is there with his family) and we said well actually we are missionaries..., he interupted and said "I know, but are you allowed to get ice cream?",  and we said well we are actually here for an appointment. and he said "Oh , ok I was going to say I would pay for you if you were going to, are you sure you dont want any?....." we just looked at eachother and giggled and zr. Taylor said we will be right outside of the place, sitting at those tables just so you know ;). and we sat down and waited for Luis. Then later that dad comes out and says: "Once you are done with your thing here you can come in and get your ice cream, I took care of everything!" We almost started crying! So nice of him! He was not a member either! We are bummed we could not contact him due to some situations, but we knew Heavenly Father was blessing us and helping us! I am so gratefull he is mindfull of us! Seriously, a huge blessing. 

Another spiritual moment was with an investigator of ours, her name is Tanya. She is from Holland and she is married and has 3 boys. We were teaching her the restoration and I was testifying to her about our messege at the end and I could feel the spirit so strong my eyes started to tear up, and I knew without a doubt that what I was saying was true, and I could see somehting in her eyes. I could see that she was being touched by the Holy Ghost to, and she might not be able to understand it or what she felt, but I knew. This is the only true church on the earth, and it's doors are open to all who are willing to come in. No matter how much you know I can testify that Heavenly Father will always try to deepen your understanding and testimony of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, it is His church, and through it we can recieve all the blessing he wants to give us! 

I love you all!! 

Lobi!

Zuster Parker