This week has been amazing! Tuesday I left for Concepcion to attend a new missionaries conference. I got to sleep at some of the Hermanas apartments in Conce for 2 nights and after the first day at the conference, I did a split with Hermana Glazier. It was great being with her and learning ways to improve myself as a missionary. After attendingthat confernece, I felt so motivated! All of the questions that had been building up were all answered and I have so many ideas to help our sector improve.
We have a few investigators who are improving a lot! We have been helping one named Maria to quit smoking. On Thursday we made a plan to help her quit and in order to help motivate her a little more, both my companion and I chose an (addiction) of ours to give uip. Hers was chocolate and mine was all sweets in general. We came back the next day and she told us that she hadnt smoked once! That time we brought little sticky notes that we all wrote notes of encouragement for her to see whenever she had a temptation to smoke. We also found a list of scriptures for her to look up that would hlep give her strength. We call her about 2 times a day and are continuing to visit her often. She is doing so great! And so are we! We havebeen resisting sweets :)It is amazing how easy it is when I know I am doing it for Maria. I will do anything I canto try and help her.
Also, another miracle, one of our investigators Aida came with us to church this week! She has been trying to find her answer about baptism, and it just so happened that I was assigned to give a talk in sacramanet meeting about faith. I was able to bare my testimony of our living prophet and the privelage we have to hear his counsel along with other leaders of the church this coming weekend. I testified that we can recive answers to all our our questions during General Conference. SHe is hopefully going to watch some of it with us.
One more miracle this week... Yesterday one investigator name Nancy committed to baptism and has such a strong desire to learn and read more of the assignments we give her. We taught her how to pray and she was amazed that she could actually have a conversation with God. IT was beatuiful when she offered a simple but sincere closing prayer.
The mission is definitely rough, but I learn more and grow stronger every day. I have never felt so much joy than I do right now. I love being a missionary! I hope you all had a great week. Thank you for your love and prayers.
Con amor,
Hermana Parkin
Pictures: With Hermana Page and a picture I took on my way to Conce. It is so green here and getting a lot warmer!! :D