I Believe in Miracles

December 28, 2015

So this week made me believe even more in miracles.. I know that they are real.. We are in Limoeiro Do Norte.. There are few members.. and we were without lunch for the whole rest of the week.. This was on Wednesday.. Christmas Eve was the next day and we had no clue what was going to happen with us.. I had been praying so much that this Christmas could be something special for me this year.. Then we got a call from President... We were able to go FORTALEZA for Christmas.. It was super awesome. I got to spend Christmas with The Dantas´s... The family I had always wanted to spend Christmas with.. IT WAS A MIRACLE.. 

Christmas was great.. Got to talk with my family for an hour this year.. IT was great.. 

Its not real to me that this is my last week on my mission.. After two years... THis is it... I cant even believe it. 

I love the mission so much, and I know that God always is willing to give us miracles when we are doing what we need to. 

THE BAPTISM OF AURICÉLIO!!!!

this was a crazy miracle. we basically didnt teach him the whole week, and we were without a place to baptize. AFter church on Sunday we went door to door asking people if they knew a place where we could do the baptism.. Then around four we had to go do the Baptismal interview. I knew that he would pass. He is a great man. HE passed... And we still didnt have a place to baptize.. By this point it was like 5:00... I have changed a lot on my mission. So I really dont care about talking to anyone about anything now.. We passed by a waterpark... And I said.. WEll they have water..  We walked in and I talked to one of the workers.. Then I asked "hey where is your boss I need to ask him something" we went and talked to him.. We stopped the water treatment.. with the water treatment we wouldnt have been able to do the baptism... We talked to him and he let us do the baptism.. Then we ran and got everything organized.. In the end he was baptized.. It was Elder Gomes Da Silvas first baptism.. I loved seeing the happiness on his face.. 

THIS IS MY LAST WEEK.. So I will do what I need to do.. Thats all tha happened this week .

lOVE YOU ALL SO MUCH.. 
I WILL BE HOME SOON

-Élder Parker Hamrick

Missão Brasil Fortaleza Leste
Brazil Fortaleza East Mission

Just You Wait

November 7, 2015

so i feel like the theme of my mission is just you wait.. I never know what the Lord will have planned for me in the future. 

also because I am always working hard and then recieving trials of my patience.. 

things just dont seem to be working right at the beginning. everyone here says that this area is super hard, one of the hardest areas. but I refuse to believe that. But then again if it were easy it wouldnt be worth it. 

We are always working together here. its kind of weird that sometimes we dont have lunch with the members so we have to make our own lunch.. 

theres a guy here whos been going to church for like 4 months straight without missing one sunday. and he hasnt been baptized yet.. I have never prayed for someone so much in just one week. 

I love how God waits to see our response to hardship to give us blessings. 

we had a big goal for the attendance here.. it wasnt met.. but IT WILL BE,

To put a big ol cherry on top to the hardship. the City of limoeiro do norte is without water... I had to take a shower witha  bucket today, and yesterday I wasnt even able to take a shower.. 

iTs hard but I am doing my best, and thats what matters. 

I have little time here.. sortty.. MAYBE i will send pictures. 

LOVE YOU ALL 

MISS YOU

-Élder Parker Hamrick

Missão Brasil Fortaleza Leste
Brazil Fortaleza East Mission

Limoeiro... the Group

November 30, 2015

So I have a lot of work cut out for me these next few weeks... Here the church is just starting and I have basically taken the position of the bishop for the people here.. It is a lot different than what I Was doing before. EVERYTHING... I mean EVERYTHING... is different here. Like I almost dont know what to do. 

But I need to trust a whole lot in the Lord and he will be able to help me out with the rest.. I will just work hard with my new companion Elder Gomes da Silva from Pernambuco. The state right next to CEARÁ. He is super cool and we are going to light this place up with work.. We need men.. For the church to do well here it needs a lot more men.. So we are going to do all that we need to to get men to come to church. 

So like I said the church is just starting here so we dont have a chapel.. We have church in a school house.. Its way different.. But different is good. We got into the area on friday night after a pretty crazy and stressful transfer that we had to do.. It is weird not being assistant anymore I feel so excluded from everything.. Also I am like 4 hours on a bus away from fortaleza. Its a little far haha.. But I got to know the city a little bit better and I started working on Sunday. We found our way around a bit.. and then it was time to get back.. We walk a lot here.. There arent any buses here.. 

Sorry I dont know If I am going to be able to send pictures here.. I Dont trust the place that I am using internet.. It would stink to have all the pictures from my whole mission gone.. at the end of my mission.

LOVE YOU ALL 

KEEP IT REAL AND CLASSY

-Élder Parker Hamrick

Missão Brasil Fortaleza Leste
Brazil Fortaleza East Mission

Wild Card

November 26, 2015

Well this week a wild card was thrown at me.. Something that I never would have expected.. Ever.. Like ever... 

I am no longer an assistant....

I am now going to be a group leader in a city called Limoeiro.. Which means lemon tree.. And I am going to open yet another area and train once again... 

This came  to me as a complete surprise. I thought I was going to stay in the office until I went home. I love this place.. But now I will be going. 

So a group leader is the person who is in charge of basically a mini ward.. I am leading the group.. .It just doesnt have enough members to be a ward yet so I will be in charge for like 5 weeks in a place that I dont know at all.. But it will all be good. The Lord trusts me so I will do what I need to do. 

My new son is a stud. He is already a super natural missionary. I will be happy to be with him for the next month.. 

So for those of you who dont know I now know that I will be home on January 6th. I cant believe that this time has come up.. 

I wont even have time to think about the time passing because I will be super busy.. Maybe not as busy as I was here, but I am now. 

This week was pretty good.. With a surprise division during the weekend.. I stayed with Elder Niu who is a tongan from New Zealand. He is a stud I loved it. 

Then we had a crazy transfer... while that was happening we were having the training for the new missionaries who got there.. it was a crazy time and I have never been going so nonstup in my who life haha.. 

I love you all, thank you for all of your support.. Its super weird.. I cant believe that I am leaving the mission office.. I hope that Christmas will be cool still... In the Middle of nowhere.. Just kidding. 

It was really hard to say goodbye to Cesar, Christiane, and Layna.. They were super sad to see me go.. They even made a poem about how much of an impact we had on them. I WILL NEVER FORGET THEM.

Keep up everything great that you all are doing.. and Help the missionaries!

-Élder Parker Hamrick

Missão Brasil Fortaleza Leste
Brazil Fortaleza East Mission

Find Out Why

November 16, 2015

​So this week started off with a bang. haha we had one of the coolest family home evenings ever. It was super cool and like all the youth in the ward were involved.. And it was at Cesars house.. There are so many youth in this ward! So it made for a good time, I will send pictures here in a little bit. It was way cool though.. That night we also found something out that changed our week a whole lot. 

We found out that we were going to go to Juazeiro for most of the week.. So that was crazy to find out.. We had to get everything figured out so that our area wouldnt be empty.. And all the people we were talking to wouldnt be abandoned.. It was crazy. So Tuesday we were doing that, following up with everyone that we needed to, and telling them that we would only be back next week. So we will see if the people felt any difference without talking to us. It will be interesting. 

The next day we also had this sister who went home because she stayed the MOST amount of time possible on her mission. It was cool to have a dinner at Presidents house with her. She didnt want to go home. She could have kept serving, but it was time for her to go home. I wonder what type of missionary I will be when that time comes.. I love this work like none other, but it made me think.. ​

So the day that we were going to leave we had a surprise.. We had an elder that was sick in the hospital, and we got to help his companion and him out by going to the hospital, then their area to get clothes and stuff. Our bus left at 12:30 in the afternoon.. So we went there and got into MARACANAU... which is pretty far away from the bus station to go to JUazeiro.. I was able to spend a little time with one of my old companions.. Elder West! It was pretty cool. It was good to think back on memories and to hear about all the people that are super strong in the church now. I love it .. But it was  a little complicated.. We were in Maracanau and it was 11:15... so we had to take a taxi to the bus station.. We got there, while I was waiting for my companion the bus left the station.. So we got in the Car of the missionary couple in our mission and literally chased the bus down! Luckily it was going to another bus station.. We were able to make it there.. And everything safe.. Stressful, but it all worked out. 

It was cool to see everything on a 10 hour bus ride all the way to Juazeiro.. It was super beautiful. 

When we got there we did some exchanges with the Zone Leaders. Elder Hadlock who is super awesome, and Elder Azevedo, my singing buddy.. Who is super good and he did shows and stuff before the mission. It was cool because there was a cool meeting there.. This district is so close to becoming a stake.. So It was exciting.. Elder Mazzagardi was there from the area presidency. He said some pretty good stuff that I will always remember.. I have it all written down.. He told some pretty cool stories too. Also it was good to hear some good talks from President Fusco as well.. The phrase that stood out the most to me was this

"LUCK OR BAD LUCK, IT DEPENDS WHAT HAPPENS IN THE END"

​It was super cool.. It sounds a lot cooler in portuguese. haha.. But I liked it a lot. 

The reason why I called this email "Find Out Why" because I didnt really know why we were there the whole time.. We left 2 baptisms behind here in our area... It made me sad.. And they didnt even end up happening.. But I didnt really know what was going on.. But I found out that I just needed to be obedient and make the best of it.. President called us to go there.. SO I will do what the Lord told him to do. 

Also I was wearing these shoes that I had redone that completely destroyed my feet. I have never had so many blisters on my feet, but its all part of the work of the Lord... everything that I pass through I know it will make me stronger.. He loves us. I dont have a doubt about that.. I love you all too.. Keep up your wonderful faith.. Keep praying. I know He hears you.. Love you :)​

 

-Élder Parker Hamrick

Missão Brasil Fortaleza Leste
Brazil Fortaleza East Mission

Family night

Shrimp

With açai

Juazerio

Exchanges

November 9, 2015

Exchanges is the title of the email this week, because that is what we did basically every single day this last week. It is interesting. Like I am getting to know basically the whole mission now that I am going on so many exchanges.. This week didnt seem like there was anything all too exciting. I mean.. compared to where I was at the beginning of my mission, its all exciting.. Heck I am in the work of the LORD... Its super exciting haha

Really though I dont have a whole lot to tell you about. I went on a whole bunch of exchanges. We had a couple of difficult days, but everything was looking good for our baptism this week. Then we found some stuff out and the baptism didnt work out in the end. That was a pretty big bummer.. But I know that things will still work out some way. 

I have been focusing a lot about Becoming better this past week. I have realized that I have so much to do still. I have grown and changed quite a bit, but I am still no where near what I think the Lord wants me to do. SO that is my focus. 

I have learned over the course of some time that Goals are super important in life. Not just in missionary work. SO I have a challenge for all of you. I want you to all set a Goal.. Something that would be super important to you. Pray your heart out, do your best, and see what happens.. I know the Lord answers our prayers. I know that He loves you all. I know that because I see it every single day. 

Today we had to give a surprise training about Inviting people to be baptized, and inviting them to church. Two of the most important invites anyone could invite you to do.. SO I am inviting you. Go and see what God has for you and visit the LDS church. And for the people who are already members. Go to church Remembering WHY you are there.. I love you all. 

Thank you for all you do

-Élder Parker Hamrick

Missão Brasil Fortaleza Leste
Brazil Fortaleza East Mission

I love this family!

Elder Marrey, Me, Cesar, Cristiane, and Layna

Brownie! 

The cutest dog! He fell asleep on my shoe! 

A lizard

Just Keep Swimming

A huge coconut

November 2, 2015

So this last week I had the song from Finding Nemo stuck in my head. "Just keep swimming Swimming swimming" haha I dont know why but it seemed to be a good theme to my work this week. I love The mission, and being in this calling, but it is not easy. I am thankful for all the chances that the Lord has given me to help me be strengthened spiritually and physically. 

This week we had a Mission Tour with a Seventy. It was sweet. A mission tour is when the Seventy comes to visit the mission and basically gets everyone pumped up about being in the BEST MISSION IN THE WORLD. haha but it really was cool. It was interesting being on the side of the conference where Its our duties to make everything happen. It was really cool. The seventy was Elder Campos. We learned some really cool things that have helped me out already. The mission has been talking a lot about light and making your light shine. Some other cool things that he said to us was that A leader is supposed to do some certain things. 

TEACH
INSPIRE
TRAIN
SUPERVISE
LOVE
MOTIVATE

So now I always think about when I do something am I doing at least one of those things? He also said that:
                "THE MISSION IS LIKE THE MTC OF LIFE, WHAT HAPPENS ON THE MISSION WILL BE JUST LIKE WHAT HAPPENS IN YOUR LIFE, EXPERIENCES, CHALLENGES, EVERYTHING"

Then after a powerful meeting that day, we had a mission council the next day to apply those things to the mission. President Fusco said something that was pretty cool. 
                  "Don´t go to bed until you have done YOUR best"
I really liked that what he said.. It made me want to do better every single day. 

So I really dont and havent ever gotten stressed on my mission. I just started to get a little stressed this last week.. It is funny one of my eyes is slightly more closed than the other because of the stress, but I know I dont need to be.. I just need to Trust more in the Lord.

We worked our hearts out this last week. Like we gave everything that we had.. And at the end we didnt get the results that we were waiting for.. Actually it was almost the exact opposite.. It was sad.. I know that the work will pay off. But the Lord knows better where the hard work will show itself. 

I love working. Sometimes it gets hard when everyone promisses something and never follows through with what they had said. I just feel sad for them. If they really knew what they were missing out on, they would never miss something so precious. 

I love you all so much. Thank you for all your support for what I am doing. I am still going hard, I wont stop.. This work is just tooo good.

LOVE

-Élder Parker Hamrick

Missão Brasil Fortaleza Leste
Brazil Fortaleza East Mission

Happy Halloween! (The only thing Halloween here)

I grabbed a chicken 

This one will be short

October 26, 2015

So this last week.. like all the other ones was super busy... 

I got a new companion. Elder Marrey.. He is a stud.. We already get along really well.. We didnt really know eachother before.. But I am already liking it.. 

we had a miracle baptism.. Well every baptism is a miracle.. 

This man has worked outside the mission office for quite a few years now.. And the missionaries had never thought about teaching him.. well if they did think, they never did teach him.. He was baptized this week... He was the one who gave us hope last week at the last minute.. the happiness on his face just made me super happy.. After the baptism he like was so excited and just happy.. he waved to everyone watching with the biggest smile ever.. I asked him if it was a cool experience.. then he said.. OH THE BEST.. he always calls me Irmãozinho... or in english little brother.. he has had a rough life.. But I know the best thing for him is the gospel.. Miracles happen.. We just need to find them :)

 

It is interesting that we were able to work almost the whole week. We got a lot of work done... but We still didnt get as many people to church as we would have liked.. God still blessed us for the work that we were able to get done. Another person who just seems totally ready to hear the gospel.. I love the gospel so much.. 

Its weird, I still dont feel like I am the assistant.. Like.. not at all.. I just feel like a normal missionary.. (Who does a lot of crazy stuff) haha.. But its cool still.. Time is going by super fast now. 

I love you all.. I dont really have much else to say.. We found this super awesome family.. We both were told that we need to talk to them.. So we did.. He is an innactive memmber who has been wanting to go back to church.. He doenst live in our area though.. he and his wife want to go to church.. Not all of his family is baptized.. only him.. But we felt the spirit.. And a really strong connection with them.. It was cool.

I love you all a whole lot.. Hope you had a great week.. 

LOVE

-- 

-Élder Parker Hamrick

Missão Brasil Fortaleza Leste
Brazil Fortaleza East Mission

Sorry, it's been like 3 weeks

October 22, 2015

I am sooooo soooo sorry it has been such a long time since I have talked to you all... dont worry. I am totally fine! JUST SUPER CRAZY BUSY! I am happy and working so dont worry.. I will try to get you all caught up on the last few weeks of my life. I promise I will try to get a lot better at responding to you all, or at least writing a letter to you all once a week :)

Alright so where do I even start.. HAHA holy cow.. So like 2 weeks ago we had a special mission conference.. This mission conference was super special for President Fusco also.. Because what happened was it was President Swensen that came to our mission! He is the MTC president here in Brazil.. Also he just happened to be President Fuscos Mission President... Imagine that... Your assistant becoming a mission president and then going there to his mission to visit.. It was super cool. Sister Swensen did this really cool thing with the Restoration.. Playing all these hymns of the restoration and showing a slideshow and talking and bearing testimony.. it was super powerful. .

I had a cool experience again with a really strong prompting.. We were looking for the daughter of this guy. we had never met his daughter though.. Well as we were walking to the mans house I just had a straight up feeling that said "THATS HER"... and what did I do.. I just was like no.. thats weird.. What if thats not her.. Well we passed by and talked to the man.. it just so happened to be her that passed by us.. And I missed it.. Luckily the Lord still gave me a second chance because it happened again.. This time we talked with her.. so that was way cool. We just have to listen.

Two weeks ago we just had a big struggle getting to work in our area normally.. Like every single day something happened that made us only be able to work from 6-9.. I love being assistant.. sometimes its just sad because you cant get enough follow up in your own area haha.. 

Two weeks ago also there was these drunk guys who were playing music for us.. In Brazil they play music suuuuuper loud in the middle of the street.. They played "Stayin´alive", "Girls just wanna have fun" and this song that just repeatedly said BRAZILLLLLLLL. It was funny haha. 

Also two weeks ago during fast and testimony meeting I felt the spirit super strong... Like crazy strong.. Cesar, Cristina, and Layna. The family that we baptized and reactivated went up to bear testimony.. I loved it.. Cesar pointed us out and said I KNOW THAT THE LORD LOVES ME.. IF IT WERENT FOR ELDER HAMRICK AND ELDER MOLINA I DONT KNOW IF I WOULD HAVE EVER COME BACK TO THE CHURCH... It was super crazy the feeling I had.. Like He was so grateful for something that I dont even feel like I did.. All of the biggest miracles that happened in my mission really came to me when I really didnt do anything to recieve the miracle.. like out of nowhere it just comes up and I feel super blessed. 

Sunday was an interesting day last week.. We had basically lost all hope with bringing people to church.. There were so many people that basically just tricked us into believing that they were going to go to church.. Its sad that they basically just blatently lie to us.. The night before we were looking for more people to come to church with us.. We were searching so crazily.. Then I said wait we need to say a prayer.. We said it.. Within one minute someone yelled at us from accross the street "TAKE ME TO CHURCH, I WANT TO BE JUST LIKE YOU GUYS SOME DAY" I stopped that second and thanked God.. he blessed us so much.. except he didnt go to church... But we left church right before sacrament meeting to go help this man get to church.. he told us no.. Then we got straight with him and said do you want to keep living your life like this? then he just walked away.. We thought he walked away mad.. so we just sat there for a bit like.. Dang thats it.. Then we were talking about hope.. Then He comes back and he had gotten dressed ( Put on a shirt and a hat ) it was amazing. He loved it and he should be baptized this week. This man is amazing.. I have a lot more of a story about him later.. 

So this last week we had transfers.. It was crazy.. There was a group of 18 that got here.. we also had to get the other like 70 missionaries figured out where they need to go.. Transfers are crazy..  And with all of that there were 10 missionaries that went home and finished their missions! (Elder McChesney one of my old companions is gone now) it was cool though. 

The next few days we had a training for all the new missionaries. .SOmething cool that we got to do was spend some time with Elder Godoys son... The seventy... I am friends with him now.. he was really cool. he was with us during the trainings.. And he also worked with us one of the days.. It was super cool. I loved it. 

I love the people here.. this week we found a Brazilian Jack SParrow.. he was super funny and just like him.

WE had the primary program this week. >It was super cute.. I loved it.. I felt the spirit a lot.. 

LASt of all the craziest thing.. ELDER MOLINA WAS TRANSFERRED>> THERE IS A NEW ASSISTANT ELDER MARREY.. Elder Molina is going to a place called Quixada.. Saturday.. So I will be training the new assistant basically by myself in 2 days.. Its crazy.. A lot of stuff has happened. sorry I havent talked much to you.. I love you all so much. 

THANKS FOR EVERYTHING 

-Élder Parker Hamrick

Missão Brasil Fortaleza Leste
Brazil Fortaleza East Mission

Açai

Exchange in my old area! Visits the Y! 

Oh This Has Gotta be the Good Life

October 5, 2015

So this week I think I am going to send you all a good old fashion email by writing.. I dont know why but I just feel like its better for this week.

So to start off the week we had.. Wait I dont even remember what week we are in haha,. 

But We had some more trainings on Tuesday with the missing zones.. It was cool to see how each set of Zone Leaders took things a different way. We have been spending some good time with President Fusco.. He is such a great man.. I look up to him in a lot of ways.. He told me some things that I will never forget this week.. I will tell you here in a bit.. 

So after the training there we went on an exchange with some elders.. Elder Molina got to go back to his last area and work back (in his kingdom) and get a lot of great work done.. We had a good time here on our end to.

The next day we were going to do our studies then end the division, but I ended up getting like 3 phone calls about a transfer and we had to go and figure that out.. So we traded back and got everything settled out with the transfer. We had to go and buy tickets to get places and everyhing.. Transfers here are alittle complicated because sometimes they have to be transferred to a place that is like 10 hours away by bus.. 

After that we had an interesting day. We had to get a lot of things done.. We got everything organized to go to Juazeiro and do the mission conference there. we got all that done.. Went out to work for about two hours then we had to come back for dinner with President and Elders Hwang and Austad.. Everytime a missionary leaves that happens.. they have dinner with President.. This time it was super special because it was just us four assistants.. like it was an environment that like never would be possible again.. I loved it.. He gave us some really good advice there too. 

ADVICE FROM PRESIDENT FUSCO

• When we come back we need to make sure that our lives are Centered on Christ.. Like the Sun and the Earth.. We need to have our lives as the earth revolving around the Sun or Son of God. Usually people have their lives as if their life was the sun and Christ revolved around them.. They usually dont succeed to their potential that way.. It is super good advice I need to apply.
  
• Also He said that the percentage of Assistants who fall away from the church is higher than the percentage of missionaries that have any other position in the field. 
• He told us because Satan has the most power against us.. Like what he always does.. He goes for the Leaders.. To bring down other peopl faster.. I need to be careful.. I dont see myself as one of those great leaders.. But we ALWAYS need to be prepared. 

The rest was just really a good feeling as if we were with a relative. 
After that it would have been quite the sight to see. We had to carry a bunch of packages to bring with us on the Bus to bring to the people in the interior.. IT WAS SO MUCH STUFF.. it took so long and it was a struggle, but it all worked out in the end.. 

We ended up being late to a meeting the next day because of a confusion with a bus ticket and we got there. Luckily we made it in time to do the Mission conference.. It is crazy how much we do.. After the Conference we went and did an exchange with a companionship to help them out.. And that same night.. Traveled back (10 hrs) to Juazeiro.. 

Then it was already Saturday! Time for conference! We didn thave anyone to bring to conference the first session on saturday... So we watched it in the Mission Office.. It was super nice to watch it in English.. 

then we had a miracle and This person we are teaching came to conference.. The story of IAGO is super sad.. Like I want to just take him in.. he is such a good guy.. I want to help him out.. So I am going to do my best to help him get baptized. .

The next day we had more conference! It was amazing and had more miracles we were able to bring 5 people to conference.. and we had to run back get the baptismal font ready.. we were going to be late and a member passed by right when we were leaving and gave us a ride. .THe Lord blesses us so much.. I dont even understand it.. But I am doing the best I can and I accept all the blessings He is wanting to give to us. 

The baptism was super special.. and I cant wait to see them being sealed in the Temple. 

I love this Gospel so much. 
I KNOW FOR A FACT THAT GOD IS A GOD OF MIRACLES... I want everyone else to understand what happiness is waiting for them on the other side of the Path.. PLEASE if you have not read the Book of Mormon or visited the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.. Or prayed about the truths that are taught there.. Do so now.. There is not a better time than today..  I love The Savior with all of my heart.. I never want to cause him more pain than I already have... A lot in the past.. But that is why it is so great.. The Love of God is indescribebale... I want you to feel it.. Pray with all of your heart tonight to know if he is there.. and if he loves you.. 

LOVE

-Élder Parker Hamrick

Missão Brasil Fortaleza Leste
Brazil Fortaleza East Mission