Send me pictures

Here is my wall of pictures and memories. Send Me pictures! So I can make my wall bigger and bigger! Plus I love looking up to see the faces of family and friends lookin right back at me SO PLEASE. Send me pictures, its not that hard. Send me a picture of us, or of you, either one. 

my address is:

Elder Parker Hamrick
2223 NW 99th St.
Vancouver, WA 98665

We get put down to be brought back up once again

This week in GRESHAM! 

I am going to go through my week basically. sorry this one is going to be so long, but last weeks was like a paragraph. SO GET READY :)

Last p day my companion was looking at a cars rims (Hes obsessed with cars) and he walked directly into a tree even though I warned him. It was soooo funny. Good times good times

We had interviews with the mission president this week. He is such an awesome inspired man. my interview was actually really short. Asked me like two questions then it was basically done. I dont know if that was a good or a bad thing, but I guess we will have to see hahaha. 

This week like last week was a bit of a frustrating one. We had two or three days where we didnt leave the apartment until 3 or 4 PM. I was soooo mad haha. But as the week went on. It was all just attitude. I am sorry for being so negative last week. Sometimes you just gotta let it all out. And I guess that was me doing that to you all last week. My bad. I learned that things amazing can still happen even if things dont go amazingly well. I have come to learn also that when you have a super stellar day planned out, chances are that you wont really have all the supers stellar things that you had planned. Most of the time a small majority of those things actually happen. But I have come to love it I guess.. Welll not really love it, but start to get used to it. IT is so sad that people are slightly interested in you coming back, and they have a desire. Then out of nowhere their desire gets absolutely crushed by someone else. They were so close. If they only realized the message that we had to share for them... It just wasnt their time yet I suppose. 

Listening to the spirit and listening to those promptings is super important in missionary work. We were going to visit this potential investigator that we had, and he was solid. But his wife wanted nothing to do with us. They were in apartments and they were right next to this other door that we hadnt talked to yet. I had a feeling we should knock the door. I didnt react to the prompting though. Then we walked all the way down the steps and I heard something. I Just knew that we had to knock it so we did. I have no clue why we needed to. No one answered, no one got anything from it. I think I am just being tested to follow those ideas and promptings.

A phrase that my mission president likes to say is that "God Doesnt Do Random" And I have found examples of that in my mission so far already. We were walking to go do some tracting from out of our apartment. As we were walking there were these two little kids on the third floor yelling at us through the window. I yelled back loud so they could hear me and this lady in front of us said "why hello" Well turns out that she was giving a couch away for free, and needed a place for it. We took it :) and she is an awesome person too! She is our newest investigator! God knew that she would be there and that I would respond to those kids, and that she would think that I was talking to her. She needed the message we have for her in her life. she is dealing with lots of heartache and troubles in her life. Our message can help her out so much. Along with a whole lot of other people.

So that amazing couch became a big problem in the apartment. My companion is a district leader, so he had a meeting while we were scheduled to pick up the couch. So me and the other two elders in our apartment went and got it. MY companions plan was to put it in the "family room" which is basically our study room. Well the other guys had a different idea. and I didnt care. They took it and put it in there study room. My companion was super mad. So while they were gone he took it to our room where he had wanted it. WELL EVERYTHING HIT THE FAN AFTER THAT. They were yelling and some not nice words were spread. I found it pretty entertaining, because you know me, I am super easy going, so I had no preference at all. I had no clue a couch could become such a big problem.

When I do get frustrated and put down. I usually go straight to the Guitar. Say a prayer in my heart that it will all be okay, and just play my feelings. That is what music is for me. Feelings through sounds. SOunds weird but it is kind of true. I Just LOVE Music. 

I have portuguese class every friday and a family in our ward that are portuguese speaking but, my portuguese is not really amazing. I have no clue how my VISA is doing. There is a way to check onlne but I have no clue what information you need to be able to check that out. 

Someone Found my YouTube page! Isnt that just crazy??? hahaha She happens to be one of our less actives grand daughters . who is not a member. We have actually taught her like three times too. She is super interested but she doesnt live here. BUMMER. but cool that she found my youtube page. She really liked "be kind :)"

BAPTISMS two in one day. It was such a great day. It was just awesome. The first one was at 12:00For a sister named Vickie. She was so ready for this. The whole time the spirit was there super strong. it was a great experience for me. We got to teach the restoration while everyone was getting changed, and people said they just all wanted to get up there and bare their testimony the spirit was so strong. Then there was an amazing musical number. Our Zone LEader Elder YArdley has an absolutely amazing voice. I hope that I can sing like he did some day. It was beautiful.

Then we had lunch woth pir WArd Mission Leader. He is such an awesome guy. I dont know how it is in most wards, but I feel that a young WML is super crucial for ward missionary work. Without the Ward missionary work is basically nothing. Find people for the missionaries, truly pray, and seek to find who needs this message that missionaries have. Heavenly Father will put faces and names into your mind if you simply have the desire to know who. I challenge you all to bring the missionaries a referral in at least a month. And work with the investigators as well as theh missionaries with that person. The will be less likely to want to be there if they dont have a common ground. be there for lessons. Askt he missionaries if the need any help with their investigators.

The next baptism was at 4:00 IT was absolutely packed. It was as big as a sacrament meeting. The spirit was there strongly too. But there were a lot of kids there which isnt a bad thing but it worked out. I have gotten really close with this family. Megan got baptized, and I just felt happy for her. Their family makes me feel like I am with my friends or The Moores again or something. They are the best. Johnnie is a professional snowboarder, and he is super cool. He is going to maybe hook me up with some of his old Nike's. He is sponsored by them so he has a lot :) haha. We spend as much time with them as we can. They are just super good to be with. and now she is baptized!

We had a great easter. Two Confirmations on one sunday :) you could say that it was a good one. Super good one. The talks were great, just everything was haha. Then we dyed eggs. Then went to dinner. We got easter baskets the night before easter and it was awesome feeling so loved by the ward. Well this one is super long already, I will send pictures in some emails too, so get ready. 

Love you all so much

Elder Hamrick

Us and Vicki 

Here are some fun photos:

A little selfie! 

Peter Pan style of my companion

We knocked on this door and no one was home, so I left them a gift!

it has been like two months

It is crazy how fast time flies when you are on a mission. I have been gone from home for 10 whole weeks already! Time flies when you are having fun i suppose :P

Well not much to write about this week actually. The most exciting thing is that we have two baptisms this week! I didnt really teach either of them, but i guess it is awesome to have the experience of being at a baptism, who doesnt like baptisms!? One of the people is Megan. She is married to a professional snowboarder and model who was once innactive. He is being reacctivated and just got the melkezidic priesthood so he will be able to baptize and confirm his wife! She has been taught for like three years now, and is getting baptized soon. THIS SATURDAY. The other baptism is a woman named Vickie. She has been taking lessons for quite a while too. She has had issues with smoking, and was in a pretty bad place about a year ago. Now SHE IS GETTING BAPTIZED. I have grown to love each of them. I want what is the best for them. I will send pictures when It happens by next p day :)

I finished the Book of Mormon this week! I read it in almost exactly 2 months which is pretty good for me  seeing as how I wouldnt even read it before I left. I have learned so much just by reading it. ABout myself and about Christ, and About this church. Once you read it once, you just want to share it with everyone pretty much. MY plan now is to read all of the new testament. Once I have read that. I plan on reading JEsus the Christ, and after that Doctrine and Covenants. Then I plan on reading the Old Testament. Then THen the whole order again and again. All while reading the Book of Mormon In Portuguese to better myself in the language. IT is awesome how much has changed with me since I have been gone. 

I just want to make the best of my time here. To be known for being a killer missionary, but I cant do it alone. THis has been such a test of my faith. I dont have any progressing investigators really, and basically all of my potentials have fallen through. IT is hard to become a better teacher when there is no one for you to teach. Missionary work isnt always what everyone says. finding new people every day by knocking doors, and sitting there and having the spirit super strong and teaching so much truth. A lot of it is hard work. YOu go door to door for three hours and you can talk to as little as 6 people. Sorry if some of you view this as negative. I am not someone to be happy go lucky and lie. I am going to tell you all how it really is on a mission. Don't get me wrong, there are still good moments with some people, but people here dont seem to enjoy talking to us very much. Its frustrating when you know you have something that will make their lives so much better, but they refuse to accept it and believe that it will help them. THey are so stuck in the ways that they are used to. A change just is too ridiculous for them.

God has a plan for all of us, and maybe I am here to just plant a whole bunch of seeds. Who knows. Well God does, we will just have to see. I am getting more and more anxious to make it to brazil. I know that it will take time, and it wont be too soon probably. I have recieved no news on my visa as of yet. It is just the waiting game. WE WILL SEE.

That is about it. I love and miss you all, hopefully you are all having a wonderful week, until next time

Elder Hamrick

This week In Gresham Oregon

My companion and I 

Alright where to start here. I really am starting to enjoy my area. Just a little more background on the area. It is kind of ghetto just outside of Portland. There are a lot of crazy people in crappy apartments and houses. There are some nice parts, but there are also some run down places. I really like it here though. At first I didnt like it as much, because I didnt feel like I was welcome at all. But I forgot it was just my first week there. There are so many things that I have to write about, but I always will forget something, sorry.

ME and my companion. I really like him. This week we started to get along really well, and it is just fun getting to work with him We enjoy our time together. We havent really had the opportunity to teach a brand new investigator yet, but that will be this next week. We have fun doing lessons and meeting with people though. Most of the people we meet with are innactives, or partially innactives or things like that. we are really trying to reactivate them. It is really cool. We can be doing just a little simple thing like coming to see them, and it can mean the world. I love it. We do have two people on Date for Baptism though! One of the people is really cool. Her husband was a member but was innactive and didnt have the priesthood or anything, but now he is getting it, and she is getting baptized! I am so excited to see everything come together. The other is a woman who has wanted to get baptized for quite a while, but she has had issues with smoking. This week we put her on date so she should be done smoking by that time :) It makes me happy to see people who have decided to be baptized. Even before they are baptized they are super happy, they love it. 

It is really fun living with another companionship of elders. We all have fun in the apartment and spend time together when we can. They are cool guys. We all get along really well. It is fun.

So this week I decided to buy a guitar. It is a Yamaha, and I am super pumped about it!. It is a pretty nice guitar too. I have missed music so much, it is quite ridiculous. Music means so much to me. I think what I am going to do is start recording hymns and stuff on my ipad with me singing and playing guitar and posting the videos on facebook. The YOUTUBE videos continue ;). I think people respond better to videos. I will share thought at the end of videos too. I am pretty excited. Music can sometimes speak louder than words.

Hmm what else to say. Oh ya I am sick once again.. GREAT. hahaha Oh well I think the reason is because last week we had the opportunity to clean out a mouse infested garage. I dont think that Mouse poop is too good for ya. So ya.. We are all kind of sick in the apartment. Oh well the Work still goes on here :)

We almost got killed by this dog. It was just a puppy, but it was a bull dog. It would not stop jumping on us and attacking us. The guy at the door couldnt even grab the dog. It probably lasted about 20 seconds but it felt like a solid minute. IT was so funny. 

I really like walking around and talking to people. I find it funny that everyone here just kind of avoids us. They will be playing basketball in the street, as soon as they see us. They will go to their houses so they dont have to talk to us. I just laugh every time. So That was pretty much my week in Gresham. IF you have have any more questions feel free to hit me up with an email :)

Love you guys. 

Elder Parker Hamrick

Here are some pictures from the MTC:

MY teachers! THe top picture is Irmao james, and the bottom one is Irmao Mummey. Both of these guys are awesome

Pictures with my BRAZILILIAN BUDDIES. como e bom ser vida loca

THe first picture is me and Elder Gabriel. HE is from Angola Africa and he speaks Portuguese. He is awesome. The second picture is me and elder Maladri (Left) And Elder John (Right). Elder Johns name is John John he is from the Marshall Islands. And is awesome. Maladri is from Fiji. I love those guys

My TONGAN BROTHER. Look for Elder Kaafi in the Independence Mission