Monday, November 3, 2014

Keep an Eternal Perspective

Mundo Do O Livro de Mormon

November 3, 2014

SO this week was pretty cool. We had a leadership meeting for everyone that is a leader in the mission. I am not in leadership but my companion is. SO we went there and pretty much the whole way of missionary work has changed. We are focusing a lot on everyone now. Keeping EVERYONE strong in the church not just less active members. Everyone. I really like this because it is important to have strength in the church in every part of every country. I will see how much this changes things of how we work. As of now not much has changed, but I know when we apply things it will change for sure. One thing that wasnt good about this meeting was that I had to pay for 3 people to get to Fortaleza and back... I lost quite a bit of money that day. PRetty sad, but we got there and back safely so thats what really matters. thats another thing that I really need to focus on. Not worrying about the little things, but enjoying the little things. Especially thinking in an eternal perspective. Thats why we are trying to get everyone to go to the temple. IT is a not only a beautiful area, but really an important place for us to go. And be strengthened and edified by it. 

So everyone is asking me about my relationship with dogs here in Brazil. Well I finally was bitten by a dog this week. But dont worry it is not as bad as you are probably thinking. I was playing with this dog.. And it decided to bite my pant leg. IT was totally fine, but then it decided to go a little deeper and get my leg. I lifted up my leg and the dog was just hanging on haha. A detail that I left out is that he was about 3 weeks old and stuper cute.. IT didnt hurt whatsoever. 

This week we walked a lot more than I thought we did. We have a reaaaaaallly big area... Like I dont even understand how big this area is. There are parts that I havent even seen because we would have to take a bus 20 minutes just to go there. IT is huge. But anyways we were walking a lot to obscure places in our area this week. My feet hurt haha. I have a bunch of sores on them from walking so much. When I get back I will have feet like rocks haha. Ew... 

So this week I finally realized how hard it is for me to speak english. I can hardly pray in english anymore. I can type only because I get to think in my brain before I type it out. When I speak I speak super slowly and probably incorrectly at times. I hope this is a sign that my portuguese is getting better. I think it is. We are teaching better, and I am sort of starting to be able to talk to people like I would normally.. SOrt of.. But we are teaching better, So I think my portuguese is getting better. There are some things that I say that I know are wrong and I correct myself afterwards and people just seem confused. I need to stop doing this and just speak correctly. SAdly it is a lot harder to do than to say... haha. 

I am trying to veer my thoughts away from me being bad for this area. Every companionship in our district has had some good success this transfer.. With at least one baptism. WE havent had one this whole time. Its hard because before I got here they had a lot of success. I guess I need to find out what I am doing wrong here. 

This is definitely work. It is physical, it is mental, and for sure spiritual. I have never grown so much in these three categories At once in my life before. I know that it is changing me for the better. Something that PResident Fusco said to us in the meaning has really hit me hard. About our hearts. HE told us we have good hearts, and if people realize that and see that they will trust you and listen to what you have to say. But how do we show our hearts to people? that is the hard part. I think that I will continue to study. I care about people a lot, but at times I dont think that I show it well enough. If I dont show it how will they know? and what is the point? think about it. We all have love for people, but at times they dont know it because we dont show it. 

I hope everyone had a great week this week. YOu can all confide in the fact that I am here sweating and being hot and walking a lot and trying to help people every week. You can know this with a certainty. LOve you all, miss you. 

Elder Parker Hamrick

coconut with my mustache straw

this is one day after walking the streets of brazil. THe other clean one is after cleaning... IT is dirty here haha


Elder Guimaraes E Eu

They eat this here... Fish head... Just kidding! Haha

Because Salvation Was Never a Cheap Experience


October 20, 2014

This week. As you can see the subject of the email is about salvation. and how it is not a cheap experience. Missionary work is all about salvation, and it is not easy thats for sure. This week was just kind of interesting. 

SO we started off this week witha  freezer adventure. We had a bunch of ice built up in our freezer so we decided to clean it out. The only way I knew how was to use water, so we basically flooded our house. But Tudo Bem Everything was good. We live on the second floor and just wiped all the water down the stairs and out the door haha. It was funny, but it was a lot of work haha. But worth it. now we have a beautiful fridge... kind of...

I probably will return loving to clean, or hating it. because here I basically have to clean every single day. I dont know why but everything in our house gets covered with dirt... every single day... I wont have anything clean within a couple weeks haha. HAving things dirty bothers me so I clean a lot haha. 

SO this week I had multiple people call me edward cullen and for the second Time I have had someone tell me that I have beautiful eyes to my face. Haha it is pretty funny how people here will just be honest with you and not hold in their thoughts pretty much haha. Another funny thing is that people here have clothes with english phrases on them. I guaruntee that they dont know what their shirts say. They never really make any sense. They are just happy they have something with english. So there is a picture of John the Baptist Baptizing Jesus in one of the pamphlets. Well we asked one of our investigators what she thought the pictures was. She said ´´A person Holding Jesus and smacking him´´ IT was so funny we were all laughing. Then right after that we were walking to a house and a kid said ´´Para! Ele Vai Moher Voces´´ WHich means stop he will kill you... It was a dog. He immediately ran towards us barking like none other, luckily he was on a leash... wooo... that was scary haha.

So at this point in all my other areas on my mission I have felt a reason for being in that area... Here is a little different. I am not feeling that at all.. I just kind of feel like I am here. I want to help everyone, but I dont feel like anything or anyone is getting better because I am here. I just feel like I am going with the Flow. I am trying to change it, but its just how I have been feeling. Repetative and not helpful. 

This week was pretty good, but it feels like we are pulling teeth with some of the people we are meeting with. We are trying our best to help them and they are just waiting for us to show up and change it for them. they arent really willing to do anything to help out. Although we do have this couple that is super awesome and they are changing their lives. It is cool to see that. 

Some random culture things. Here they have fireworks randomly throughout the day... I have had a lot of fruits and juices that I have never even heard of before like açerola, Tamarino, Caja, and Maracuja. I will have to bring back some juice mixes for people to try. Its pretty legit. And people here say neh at the end of every sentance, its super weird haha. 

All is well in Maracanau. Love you,

Elder Parker Hamrick

You can always tell where Elder Hamrick has been. 

Beautiful!! 

My zone!

The Importance of Gratitude

The streets of braziliaaaaaaa

October 27, 2014

I love the time that we have to study in the morning, because It kind of changed my whole outlook. I will be honest, the begining of this week was really hard for me mentally. I was feeling pointless here, and wanting to return to WAshington to continue my mission (Even though I am pretty sure thats not an option) I felt good there, like I was making a difference in something... Here it is hard for me to feel that way, because I dont exactly feel like me yet. But I was studying one day this week. I read a talk from 2 general conferences ago about Gratitude. This quote stood out to me. ´´It is gratitude that heals the heart and expands the mind´´ This became the theme for me for this week. It really changed my attitude. We have so much to be grateful for, even if I am not making a big difference Here, I still have to be grateful for even being here in the first place. 

We saw a meteor this week. That was pretty sweet it was in the sky for like 15 seconds. Pretty cool because I have never seen that before. 

Alma 26:27 is such a great scriptures. I love the Book of Mormon, it is full of insights that we can apply in our lives daily. I also Just finished reading the New Testament this week. It is awesome to read the scriptures. It is crazy how much I have changed in this aspect. Before my mission I never read anything, and now all I do is read.

Something cool we did this week. We went to a part of our area that literally no missionary has ever been before. We asked people if they have ever seen us. Not one of them knew who we were, or who mormons even were. It was crazy that they have never even heard of us. It was pretty cool at first, ´the people there arent any more accepting. The first time we went there was good, we went there a second time, and all of the people that we talked to befoer kind of just droppped all interest. Sadly this happened, and it was a 20 minute bus ride. IT is an area really far from us. 

I also read about the power of hope. And how I am leaving a heritage of hope for all of my descendents. I am the only hamrick to serve a mission in this generation, so I need to serve it well. The power of prayer is a real thing that we need to use more in our lives. IT really does help us, and the Lord really does hear our prayers. I think that People here dont understand the power of prayer.

WE went to another area this week to help people out with interviews... we stayed there the whole day. We had a couple interesting days of helping other missionaries.

I love you all, this week was good, and I look forward to talking to you all again next week. 

Elder Parker Pratt Hamrick


Joseph Smith

Pequinia (small thing) she is my buddy
A pretty cool bird

I got to play guitar today! I miss it, but I realized I don't need it to survive.

Zone P Day
The Zone 

We bobbed for apples... More like dunked for apples
Made mummies
The companionship