YooHoo! - March 26, 2012

Well kids. It's been another great week.
So Brandy - the LEGIT woman who cancelled her baptism date (thankfully it was like over a month in advance) - is meeting with us twice a week now. We met her husband who has been less active for like half his life and thinks he knows it all but just isn't committed to 3 hours of church (LOL). Anyway but we're meeting with Brandy tomorrow, and she's aware that we're planning a date for her to be baptized in May. She expressed to us that she thought April was too soon. Which we can understand, and it's great that she sees the importance of this commitment. They have two daughters - one is seven and one is just a few months old - so both of them will be blessed the same weekend Brandy's baptized so all their family can be there. It's super exciting! She's really intense and really pretty and really awesome.
Well we met with a family in one of our wards (so a member family) just to get to know them better and honestly I couldn't stop staring at one of their girls and couldn't figure out why. Okay fine that sounds creepy - I just kept looking at her because she looked so familiar and I couldn't figure out why. And then I got it! Morph Morty's and Shea's faces together and that's exactly what she looked like (in a child form - like 8 or 9)!!!!!!!!!! It was super freaky. And THEN I learned that she's a FRATERNAL TWIN JUST LIKE TRACIE. It was honestly pretty ridiculous. I felt obliged to warn her that her brother will leave on a mission before her and therefore without her. But she didn't seem too concerned, and her mother said it's that time in life where having a twin is not cool (is that true?! is that possible?!) so she seemed okay. Anyway. Roommate connections everywhere I guess!
Have been getting maybe 40 billion compliments on that red shirt with the roses you got me, Hannah, and was very sad when it ripped again this week. I'll have to figure out how to get it fixed.
We FINALLY had our first ward councils yesterday. I went to one of them because they were right in the middle of our 3 wards, so we were all split up pretty much all day (we're at church from like 7:30 in the morning to 3 in the afternoon). It was super intense and super cool! It's so great to see the leadership of the ward come together and try to address the needs of every single member of the congregation - even those that don't come but are in our records! We're super excited for the ward mission plans to be enacted, and hopefully that should start happening this week as our coordination meetings are picking up too. Our goals for April are BIG, and we can't do it without the ward behind us and basically dragging us along when necessary.
Our goals for the district are really big too! Want to hear them? Okay. So this is between 3 companionships and 7 wards: We are hoping to have 11 people baptized and confirmed in the month of May. 50 people with a date (they count for each week they have a date), 57 at sacrament meeting, 89 lessons with a member present, and 38 new investigators. WOW RIGHT?! April is going to be a great month; this really is the work of the Lord and my goodness it is moving along.
Wow I just realized that there are a lot capitals in this email. I guess I'm just super full of IMPORTANT THINGS. :)
Oh my gosh we got one of the new For Strength of Youth pamphlets. They are maybe the coolest things ever. I really like them.
We had some appointments fall through this week which was hard because you love these people so much and just want to meet with them! Not to mention a week feels like a month in missionary time, so when they say they can't meet for the next week and a half we start hyperventilating. Hahaha. But really.
This past week we met with some older ladies in the wards who are so good about being nice and just meeting their neighbors! We got a lot more referrals this week than we normally do since we went to them. It was so funny - they'd be like, "Well I just feel so bad since I don't know very many of my neighbors... oh but you should go see so-and-so! They're great!.... but yeah I should go meet more of my neighbors... Oh but you should go see this person! They're so sweet." For this one sister, Sister Lamb, we were there for like half and hour as she talked about how wonderful all her neighbors were. Hilarious. They're really good at being examples of how the gospel helps us lead better and fuller lives.
Have been trying more with the "tracting" by offering house blessings. We think our vernacular may be hindering us, but it's also completely necessary for all 3 of us to be completely obedient and completely excited about this work. We're trying to work on ways in which we can be better about this. One zone in our mission blessed 40 of 90 homes and got like 20 return appointments. Our numbers are not nearly that great, so we know we have work to do. We were really grateful for the time this week that we had to practice and really increase in our faith. And help people figure out that blessing a home is saying a prayer for them right there in their home addressed to their specific needs... I think people have said no out of pure confusion more than anything else haha.
A bird flew into our home this morning... That was pretty great. I think it pooped on Sister Falke's suitcase though and we forgot to clean it up...
The weather is pretty perfect here! It's crazy to think that a week ago there was like 8 inches of snow outside. Random. Also, I'm pretty sure I'm going to have a house here in Prescott... Just in case the Austin area doesn't work out! So now I'm debating between Prescott, Colorado, and Kyle. I suppose some of this would depend on where my husband and I get jobs, but it's mostly up to me, right? Right :)
Okay I think that's pretty much it. Can I get Aunt Tara's email address please? AND THANKS FOR THE GREENIE PACKAGE IT WAS SO ADORABLE. So cute.
Am excited to see the Hunger Games one day! I think I want to research the sociology of films and theaters. For some reason it sounds more appealing than environmental sociology. Thoughts?
Hey I love all of you so much. Miss you bunches and oats. Really though. Hope everyone's doing well. Talk to you next week!
Love,
Sister Parks
P.S. Isn't it totally weird that Trenton is Elder Parks? Random. But awesome!!!!!!!!!!!!!!