Tuesday, July 28, 2015

Monday, July 27, 2015 - Diciendo adios a Julio!!!!

Well it has been a rollercoaster of a week that is for sure! But its been the funnest rollercoaster ride I have been on!

On Tuesday I did an intercambio with my new zone leaders. Elder Vargas, from Argentina, was with me in my area, while my companion Elder Camacho went to Los Girasoles, which was his old area. Let me just say this was the best day I have ever had in my mission! Elder Vargas is an amazing missionary. As soon as we got out, everyone we saw we were saying hello to and contacting, just how I like to do it! We didn't let a single soul pass us. Elder Vargas has such an amazing way of teaching. I learned a lot from him. He likes using symbolisms, or basically making people do stuff by interaction so that they remember the actions they did in the future to remember a principle. For example, making them touch the bible and put their arm to the square and promise they would come to church that week. Something simple, but when Sunday comes around, they remember touching the bible and saying they would come. And it worked! With all the people he did that to, they all came to church this week. So ya, it looks a little silly, but I have added that into my teaching because I know it works! haha Also, Elder Vargas really liked stopping to talk to people that had a bible open and share scriptures with them from the bible they were reading to prove our doctrine correct. At one point we even stopped a Jehovah's Witness who had a bible out and we read with her a scripture saying Jehovah is Jesus Christ. She got offended so fast she said "My question is why do you go out of your way to prove me that what I believe is wrong??" and Vargas responded saying "We proved nothing, it was the scriptures, your very own bible, that proved that. But we are here to show that Christ's perfect church fell in Apostasy and that there are people that have changed that doctrine, but our message is the hope. That this world once again has the true church. We want to share that message with you!" I thought this girl was going to get more offended, and say GO AWAY, but to my surprise, she was so interested in the fact that we had just showed her that Jesus was Jehovah she said "Well my whole life I thought Jehovah was God.... but you showed me I am wrong using my scriptures. Show me that your church is true. I want to know more about your message." Then she said "God sent you here to show me that, didn't here?" I freaked out. Here I was thinking that we took that all the wrong way from the beginning, but Elder Vargas was so in tune with the spirit, he knew that that was what the Lord wanted us to say to her. It was harsh, and we started with something we knew would make her blood boil, but it was exactly what that girl needed. We have passed by throughout the week, and she is one of our strongest investigators and I believe she will be getting baptized very soon. Her name is Rosa. And she came to church this week. :) Anyways, Tuesday was amazing, I learned a lot with Vargas and loved every moment of the day.

We have finally caught up to Franklin and have been able to teach him, and his girlfriend Nixa, about the Word of Wisdom and the Law of Chastity this week, and after some very strong spiritually guided lessons, they promised to keep those commandments. I am again and again humbled by peoples decisions to follow the commandments of God. I know they will be blessed for their decisions.

I am sure you are all wondering, but no, I am not cured from my gripe, or the flu as they call it in Utah. I've had it for 3 weeks now and I am, sick of it, but living with it. It is definitely better than last week, but the cough still remains, but that doesn't stop me from working! :)

My companion and I are doing alright. I am still adjusting to the change. But ya know, that is the mission life!

I got a book called The Great Apostasy by James E. Talmage and I love it! It talks about the great apostasy in full detail and in one point he says, that rellying on prophecies is better than relying on a historical counting in the scriptures. For example, with the great apostasy, we see countless times that the prophets forsaw the apostasy in the church and prophecied of it. Little is given as history (which means someone says what happened afterward) and what is said is unaccurate. He says we should trust prophecies more because they are direct from God and they are a word for word truth of what will happen. History can be changed by opinion, peer pressure, lack of knowledge, or just general unawareness. So as we read the scriptures, we should focus more on what the prophecies say rather than what they history tells us what happened. I liked that a lot.

I pray that you all have a great week! I love you all and I pray for you daily! May we all do the commandments of God so that we can be blessed eternally with the promises God has given us. LOVE YOU ALL!

Con amor,
Elder Weiss :)

"My comp and I"

"Keep the Class"

"Why Hello There"

"Hey there Good Lookin'"

Borrowed some stylin' glasses

"Me and an awesome member Yajira"

"Photos I edited"



Elder Vargas and Elder Weiss

Tuesday, July 21, 2015

Monday, July 20, 2015 - A veces, no sé qué poner por el tema... (sometimes I don't know what to put in the subject)

So ya, last time I wrote was on Wednesday!!! Not too much has happened, so this may be brief!

To start... I got sick with gripe, or the flu, as you americans call it! But it hasn't been fun. A nasty cough, sniffling all the time, and headaches. Not fun. But I worked regardless. Actually, an investigator of ours made me some really awesome natural tea that took it away for quite some time... My new favorite drink too. So ya, I was suffering to learn about that tea. See? Blessings in everything!

So we have spent a good deal of time with Yesenia and Jhonathan, just teaching about how to magnify a calling. We assume they both will get one soon. So ya, just preparing them for that. :)

So now that Elder Porter is gone, all the frecas (Which means girls that hit on you) are all asking me strange questions. Every day. Like how old I am, if we can get married, if I like Dominicans, all these questions that they just ask in a certain way that you know what they are trying to get at something else.... its funny, with two  Americans they won't do it, but with just one they will...

Today we went to the Gardens in our area and took some pictures and played some games. All good fun. Just gave me something to take pictures of.

We found a new investigator, named Kenya, who is super awesome. She is a mother of like 4 kids, and already came to church this week! She is super interested in our message and asks tons of great questions. We don't know if she has a husband because she hasn't told us, but if she does, our goal is to teach the whole family! They seem to be very interested, her and her kids, as they all came to church the day after we taught them, so we are excited to work with them. :)

Like I said, short and sweet. Love you all! Have a great week. :)

Elder Weiss :)

Si no quieres aprender, no es obligado, pero por aquellos que aprendan, sus bendiciones son grandes. :)

(f you do not want to learn , it is not required , but for those who learn , his blessings are great .)

Pictures from a Botanical Garden they went to











Wednesday, July 15, 2015

Wednesday, July 15, 2015 - This is going to be long

So hey! First time I have been able to write was right now, so here is my weekly message finally! And it will be big.

So last week was great. Elder Porter was saying lots of goodbyes. It was really strange! We were all over the place. We went to like 3 or 4 different zones. It was nuts.

All of our investigators are doing really well. We were focused big time on Yesenia making sure she was ready for baptism. Also, we decided to focus more on how to help the ward and our bishop. So that we are the ones helping, and not the ones waiting to be helped. It was a big change, and I see a huge change in the work. For example, our bishop gave us a referral of a girl named Yamileth that lives underneath them, and she has been progressing a ton. And the bishop does a FHE with her every Monday, to help give that support of the ward. We believe she will be ready for baptism in about a month if she just keeps going forward the way that she is. She is strong, and you can tell she is looking for something new in her life. :) It makes me excited to see that the work is still progressing here.

Saturday was a huge day!!! First off, it was the baptism of Yesenia!!! It was soooo perfect! The most spiritual baptism I have ever been to, besides my own. It was great! A young girl played the violin as they showed pictures of their marriage afterward. But it was awesome. Yesenia was very moved, and so was Jhonathan. They both have told us they aren't going to leave the church ever. They will be strong. It was an amazing day. I also got my transfer calls, but I will tell you that soon. ;)

So next big day was Monday. We went all over our mission saying goodbye. We went to Haina, Los Alcarrizos, Central, and we went through our area like 6 times, all to say goodbyes. We were busy the whole day, for that reason we didn't get back until late. And as soon as we had time to write, we had to leave because a professional chef set up a FHE/feed Porter thing. So we ran to that, and it was super good!!! She made ribs, buffalo wings, funeral potatoes, and this awesome juice stuff. SOOOO GOOD! And Yesenia and Jhonathan were there and a couple of the members in the ward. It was a very touching moment, especially hear everyone thanking Porter for the awesome job he did in the ward. It was great. But it was really long.

Now, onto yesterday. So, I am staying here in San Geronimo, and I got a new companion named Elder Camacho, a Dominican. He is very humble and he is great. We have been together for a whole day now and he has been cool. Everyone else in my house stayed the same. I have new Sisters in my district now and they seem great! Hermana Echars and Hermana Migano if I didn't just butcher her name. Hermana Echars is from Utah and she seems really cool! Hermana Migano is from Mexico. I haven't really gotten to talk to her yet, but we have a district meeting tomorrow so I am excited to get to know them all. :)  But yesterday we had to do splits with the Assistants to help them with the transfer. So we drove around, back and forth, bringing luggage to the temple, the missionaries that are leaving to President's house, and to the temple, and running our tails off. I was at the church at 6 in the morning, and we didn't get back home until 8 at night. It was a long day of helping out, but it was fun if I am honest. I really enjoyed being in a car with air conditioning. It felt so good. haha :) As we were with the assistants, Porter remembered he forgot something, so we had to go looking for it, but we couldn't find it. So the assistants told me to keep looking for it and if we find it to call them so they could get it to him before he left at 11 in the morning the next day. So my new companion and I went on a quest looking for this thing early this morning. They are scripture cases, and we found them about seven in the morning. So they made us take the metro station all the way to the temple so we could hand deliver it to Porter ourselves. So that took all morning, getting to the temple. So I saw Porter the last time this morning, just a couple hours before he was to head home. It was bittersweet. He is a really great guy and I am going to miss him a lot, but I know we will be in touch real soon! So it was good too. :) He was a great companion. He should be on his flight right now heading home to see his family again. Crazy stuff!!!!!!!

So that wasn't as long as I had thought... well that is nice. :) I am uploading some videos on Mom's Google Drive that I am sure she can share. One is from the marriage of Yesenia and Jhonathan like two weeks ago, the other one (And mom will probably freak out at this one) is for this one time this last week when Elder Porter and I were visiting some people and we had to take a motorcycle to get out of this sketchy area, so I took a video. So ya... sorry mom. :) haha 

I love you all! Keep the faith!!!! Stay strong! :)

Elder Weiss :)

Mother's Note: Parker wasn't able to email anything on his P-day on Monday except to say he's okay and really busy because his companion was going home and Parker had to go all over so his comp could say good-bye to people and go to lots of dinners etc. He said he could talk to us on Tuesday, but with the transfers and new companion wasn't able to email us until Wednesday. But it was awesome to talk with him.

He said he is not the Zone Leader any more but is the District Leader and he is sort of training his new companion. I got the opinion he needs one on one attention but that's me thinking that. He is really excited making these last 3 months awesome!


"So we tried to take a straight face picture.... I ruined it....."



"Baptism pictures!!!!!!!!!!"






"The food that Clara (the professional chef) made for Porter's farewell!"







Tuesday, July 7, 2015

Monday, July 6, 2015 - The Week of Gold

Have you ever woke up with a smile on your face, just knowing that God is blessing you more than you are even able to comprehend? That happened to me this week. I woke up and was just overwhelmed with all the blessings I have been given. And this week just kept adding on to all those!!

I am going to jump right into the juicy part! I am sure you are all wondering about Jhonathan and Yesenia, and what happened. Well, its a fun story....

So on Tuesday we went with Yesenia early in the morning to go turn in all her papers and to pay for the marriage and set up a date to go back. So all went well there, and we set up the appointment for 9 in the morning on Thursday, and they said "be half an hour early." So, with that, we visit them Wednesday night and set up all the plans for the next day, who is going to pick us up, and all that good stuff. We found a sister from our ward who was willing to take us all down there, and we set it up so that she would get there at 8:15 at our house, then after she picked us up, we would go pick up Jhonathan and Yesenia at their house. So the next morning comes, and we are eager as ever. This is when I woke up knowing I was seeing blessings every day. But God also humbled me...... As all of you that know me really well know, patience is not my strong point.... well, 8:15 comes around the corner and the sister still hasn't shown up. I start to get nervous, so we call and she says "I am on my way. 5 minutes." By this time, I cooled down. One of the witnesses was with us, and the other witness (and by witness I mean like a witness of the wedding) was going in his own car. Both are members. So, 8:30 comes by, and still no sign of the sister. Now Jhonathan and Yesenia are calling, starting to be a little hysterical... they began freaking out and we just keep saying, "Have faith... she is coming." but inside I am saying "Alright Lord, teach me how to be patient." and I sat down.... Yes, deep down I was freaking out, but ya know, I wasn't able to do much in that situation... Well the clock hit nine, pretty quick, and we were still waiting, so naturally we are all a little upset. We kept calling the sister, but she wasn't picking up, so we just decided to go meet up with Jhonathan and Yesenia at their house. When we got there, all Jhonathan says, with a smile, is "She is mad." So we ran up to talk to Yesenia and she is saying stuff like, "forget it, I am not getting married." and other crazy stuff. We calmed her down. Then we got a call from the witness that was already there and he told us that he let them know we were running late, but we had to hurry. So a good samaratan saw we were all frustrated, and decided to take us in his SUV for free. So we got to the marriage office place late by like 30 minutes. But turns out, we had to wait in a huge line anyways of other people that were late as well, so in the end, we weren't really late. Just goes to show, God was teaching me about patience. I learned. Although I am not sure why they needed to be married half an hour later than when we set up, I am sure Heavenly Father had His reasons. So we took pictures, and then BOOM, they were married. And I am putting up a video of the marriage, so mom, you can show that to everyone on Google Drive. :)

After the marriage we met up with the Doctor and his wife down by the temple and they bought us and Elder Catmull and others pizza. Brick oven pizza too. Soooo good. :)

So now that they are married, our President decided he wanted to interview Yesenia personally for her baptism. Jhonathan didn't need an interview with our president because he is already a member, just less active. So Yesenia passed her baptismal interview and this Saturday she will be getting baptized. We are over excited, and it just keeps making my testimony grow that God is blessing His work. I see those blessings every day. I know He loves all His children.

So I hear that Boyd K. Packer passed away. Truly sad and he will be missed. A very wise and good man. A great disciple and apostle of the Lord. 

That is the big news. Today we were visiting my companion's old area. I met some cool people. But wow, it was quite the ride! hahaha :) 

I did take lots of pictures, so I will upload all of those soon.

I would like to ask all of you to read the living prophets and apostles talks from this last conference. They are inspired. I read at least three a day. They are perfect for our times, and their instructions are really just what God wants us to do. I hope you all make time and the sacrifice to always study and ponder the things of our Heavenly Father, and give thanks for His Son, Jesus Christ, who suffered for us, and gave us the way to go back to our celestial homes.

Les extraño mucho y les quiero!!!!

Elder Weiss :)

Mother's Note: I asked Parker what ever happened to the member who was supposed to pick all of them up? Did she show up or get lost...what?  Here's his reply:

She did show up.... it was funny.... she came to the wedding and when she saw us all standing around she said, "why are you all waiting around??? You are late" That didn't go to well with Yesenia.

Jhonathon and Yesenia got married!


"I could be professional..."

"here is a pic of the lady that showed up late!"



"You better believe we took a girly photo....."


"Ambercombie and Fitch model."


"Motorcycles of the DR"
"When you ask a member to
 take a sweet picture..."





"My awkward pictures of me waiting for the
 
4th of July fireworks that never showed up..."



"I guess I should have figured, considering I am not in America...."


                 "Showing off our American spirit with our ties!"



" (My tie is all the people who signed our constitution if you can't tell)"



"A giant Hershey's bar that I got from a member. :) "

"Bananas!!!"


"Some pictures of us in the bus today!"