Sooooooo......I got my second mission call this week.
No joke.
I feel like I've entered a new dimension.
We got the call Saturday night: "Well Sister Parker, wanna make any guesses on where you're going?"
Considering the fact that I've been crying non-stop for a week, having anxiety attacks over where I could be shipped off to, who I'll be with, how I'm ever supposed to leave these people I love, and in addition to how I'm going to man power haul all my clothes and shoes (no shame) to a new area.............
Naw...I'll pass on the guessing. hahaha
Yes......I apologized to the AP later for the shut down:)
So for reals....I've moved on to my new area just north of where I was before. Still felt like a transfer from the Shire to Esgaroth. I went from high-rises and highways to pastures and footpaths. And it's BEAUTIFUL here!!! We're in the Buffalo Grove 2nd ward, living it up in Libertyville, Mundelein, and surrounding areas.
I miss all the people and friends I made in North Shore and goodbyes were p.a.i.n.f.u.l. but I know the Lord has a plan for me here, so it's back to memorizing names, faces, streets, schedules, and all that JAZZ.
Meet the new comp: Sister Bishop! She's a doll. Love her. We're very similar and have fun together:) Said it before, and I'll say it again....Head's up, BG;)! Get this....she's also one of 12......Whhhhhhaaaaaat!! Probs the only two sisters in the mission with a fam of 12 and yup.....we're meant to be together. God has a sense of humor:)
Getting to a new area was tough at first cause the learning curve goes from 0 to 100...... Thanks, mission life. TBH it feels like a NEW MISSION CALL.
I feel like I'm in a different world, but still a missionary, doing the same kind of things but with no familiar faces or places. W.E.I.R.D. Things are shaping up for us, though, and we hit personal records this week in numbers!!
#SWAG #going2town
We got to meet some of the neighbors last night when Sis Bishop and I decided to tract our complex. One of our neighbors was out (smoking.....hey, we can work with anything:)....so we started chatting.
Him: "So, Sis Bishop, you're from Utah. Not surprised. Sis Parker, you from there too?"
Me: "Nope...I'm actually from New Hampshire"
Him: "Ok.......yea......I can tell from your accent."
blink blink
Ok now that's the biggest joke of my life. hahaha! Just the night before a wardie had told me I couldn't have possibly been from NH, cause I didn't have an accent.
Confuse me.....that's cool too.
We've also been running all around trying to stop by investigators and members, doing service, and staying carazy busy.
Every missionary gets at least one member-present lesson on their mission where you walk out going, "what. just. happened??"
#soml
We were ALL OVER THE MAP. Apparition visitations, Moroni and great grandma being friends, haunted houses, supposed insanity........for half and hour straight we didn't get a word in edge wise. Just kinda sat their stunned annnnnnddddd.....pushed to the point where we had to pull out ipads to send confused "what do we do now?" messages to each other.
#hatersgonnahate
5 minutes before we had to leave, the member says, "Allllriiight....should we end with a prayer?"
Uhhhhhhh......yes.....after we teach something on the subject of church doctrine.
So we did our best to cram the restoration lesson, correct false doctrine just taught, clear up confusion about "deep" subjects casually dropped, extend an invitation to church......and all in 3 MINUTES.
winner winner chicken dinner
Still walked out a bit scrambled and our investigators said goodbye still dazed and eye-glazed, but they came to church the next day!
Progress......check
Another night this week, we had 8 minutes before we needed to head home, and we decided to try dropping by a man that Sis Bishop and her last companion ran into tracting. He'd yelled (more like barked) them off his porch saying there was a sick person inside and they didn't want to be bothered. YIKES.
Sooooo......what's the Christ-like creative-sister-missionary thing to do?? Doorbell ditch him with cookies.
DUH.
hahaha! Sometimes, you just want to make someone's life better in an unidentifying way just because. And doing it with cookies.......get outta town.....#winnerstatus.
Probably one of the funnest service projects I've done my w.h.o.l.e. mission:) And.....did it in a pencil skirt and cheetah flats. I'm getting good at running in those;)
We're finding the fun in missionary work.
After church this week, we got a call from our bishop who said he'd met with the son of a member who'd taken missionary discussions a while ago but never joined the church. He'd talked with the bishop and at the end of their discussion said,
"So how do I get baptized?"
Geez laweez!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Talk about a miracle!!!!!!!!! Couldn't make that follow-up call soon enough! We're meeting with him this week, and we'll hopefully see him in the font not too long after:)
We witnessed another miracle this week when we went to contact a referral from a member. We started knocking doors, and came to a house where the door open and a 90 year old 4 foot 2 chinese woman answered. She waved us in and we sat and talked for about an hour while she told us her life story. We offered her service and she began to cry quietly. She eventually accepted our offer and told us how she'd been needing help for a long while. She then clasped her hands, looked up, and kept repeating, "Thank you, God! Thank you, God!"
Talk about a tear-jerker!! THAT'S when you know you're doing your job;)
Before we left, she kissed our hands, patted our cheeks, told us we were "good girls" and to "ask our Mommy's and Daddy's if it was ok that we come over again to help" and then waved us goodbye with, "See you Tuesday! See you Tuesday!"
Yep....she's got my vote. Love her! Tuesday should be great:)
Welp.....checked-off bucket list items for the week included teaching an elder the correct use of YOLO, packaging meals for kids in the Phillipines, painting and hiding Easter eggs, discovering the complex GYM!!!!!!, finding out how bad week-old grapes taste, and learning that I talk A LOT in my sleep....... awwwwwwkwwwward.
Oh yea, and hearing that we lucked out on living in a nice apartment....the other sisters had an infestation of BATS in their ceiling this week........GAG ME. Yeeeuup......we're counting our blessings.
I also read Teachings of the President George Albert Smith, the chapter on enthusiasm for the work! I LOVED IT! #missionarystatus #noshame! He talked about how truly important and joyful this work is!
It was like a pep talk from coach Waqua....missionary style;) hahaha!
President Smith says, "How happy it will make you, if when that time comes, when you stand in the presence of the great Judge to give an account of the few years of life that have been spent in mortality, if these our Father’s children that He loves as much as He loves us, standing by us, say, “Heavenly Father, it was this man, it was this woman who first brought to me the information of Thy glorious truth that provoked in me a desire to seek after Thee more fervently than I had done before. It was this man or this woman who did this blessed thing for me.”
Missionaries and members!! We can be that person for those around us!!!!!!
Missionary work isn't always easy. Let's get real...it can be more awkward than Rebecca Black and Friday......but it is SO rewarding, if not now, then for the ETERNITIES!!! I have to remind myself often how a little pain equals a life-time of pleasure. One invitation can change someone's life!! And the lives of those for generations afterwards!
And one day they'll thank you for it!
Perhaps one day, like President Smith said, they'll stand beside us before God and praise our names as the one's who brought them the truth!
I can't wait for that day!!!
Onward and upward,
Sister Anna Parker
No joke.
I feel like I've entered a new dimension.
We got the call Saturday night: "Well Sister Parker, wanna make any guesses on where you're going?"
Considering the fact that I've been crying non-stop for a week, having anxiety attacks over where I could be shipped off to, who I'll be with, how I'm ever supposed to leave these people I love, and in addition to how I'm going to man power haul all my clothes and shoes (no shame) to a new area.............
Naw...I'll pass on the guessing. hahaha
Yes......I apologized to the AP later for the shut down:)
So for reals....I've moved on to my new area just north of where I was before. Still felt like a transfer from the Shire to Esgaroth. I went from high-rises and highways to pastures and footpaths. And it's BEAUTIFUL here!!! We're in the Buffalo Grove 2nd ward, living it up in Libertyville, Mundelein, and surrounding areas.
I miss all the people and friends I made in North Shore and goodbyes were p.a.i.n.f.u.l. but I know the Lord has a plan for me here, so it's back to memorizing names, faces, streets, schedules, and all that JAZZ.
Meet the new comp: Sister Bishop! She's a doll. Love her. We're very similar and have fun together:) Said it before, and I'll say it again....Head's up, BG;)! Get this....she's also one of 12......Whhhhhhaaaaaat!! Probs the only two sisters in the mission with a fam of 12 and yup.....we're meant to be together. God has a sense of humor:)
Getting to a new area was tough at first cause the learning curve goes from 0 to 100...... Thanks, mission life. TBH it feels like a NEW MISSION CALL.
I feel like I'm in a different world, but still a missionary, doing the same kind of things but with no familiar faces or places. W.E.I.R.D. Things are shaping up for us, though, and we hit personal records this week in numbers!!
#SWAG #going2town
We got to meet some of the neighbors last night when Sis Bishop and I decided to tract our complex. One of our neighbors was out (smoking.....hey, we can work with anything:)....so we started chatting.
Him: "So, Sis Bishop, you're from Utah. Not surprised. Sis Parker, you from there too?"
Me: "Nope...I'm actually from New Hampshire"
Him: "Ok.......yea......I can tell from your accent."
blink blink
Ok now that's the biggest joke of my life. hahaha! Just the night before a wardie had told me I couldn't have possibly been from NH, cause I didn't have an accent.
Confuse me.....that's cool too.
We've also been running all around trying to stop by investigators and members, doing service, and staying carazy busy.
Every missionary gets at least one member-present lesson on their mission where you walk out going, "what. just. happened??"
#soml
We were ALL OVER THE MAP. Apparition visitations, Moroni and great grandma being friends, haunted houses, supposed insanity........for half and hour straight we didn't get a word in edge wise. Just kinda sat their stunned annnnnnddddd.....pushed to the point where we had to pull out ipads to send confused "what do we do now?" messages to each other.
#hatersgonnahate
5 minutes before we had to leave, the member says, "Allllriiight....should we end with a prayer?"
Uhhhhhhh......yes.....after we teach something on the subject of church doctrine.
So we did our best to cram the restoration lesson, correct false doctrine just taught, clear up confusion about "deep" subjects casually dropped, extend an invitation to church......and all in 3 MINUTES.
winner winner chicken dinner
Still walked out a bit scrambled and our investigators said goodbye still dazed and eye-glazed, but they came to church the next day!
Progress......check
Another night this week, we had 8 minutes before we needed to head home, and we decided to try dropping by a man that Sis Bishop and her last companion ran into tracting. He'd yelled (more like barked) them off his porch saying there was a sick person inside and they didn't want to be bothered. YIKES.
Sooooo......what's the Christ-like creative-sister-missionary thing to do?? Doorbell ditch him with cookies.
DUH.
hahaha! Sometimes, you just want to make someone's life better in an unidentifying way just because. And doing it with cookies.......get outta town.....#winnerstatus.
Probably one of the funnest service projects I've done my w.h.o.l.e. mission:) And.....did it in a pencil skirt and cheetah flats. I'm getting good at running in those;)
We're finding the fun in missionary work.
After church this week, we got a call from our bishop who said he'd met with the son of a member who'd taken missionary discussions a while ago but never joined the church. He'd talked with the bishop and at the end of their discussion said,
"So how do I get baptized?"
Geez laweez!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Talk about a miracle!!!!!!!!! Couldn't make that follow-up call soon enough! We're meeting with him this week, and we'll hopefully see him in the font not too long after:)
We witnessed another miracle this week when we went to contact a referral from a member. We started knocking doors, and came to a house where the door open and a 90 year old 4 foot 2 chinese woman answered. She waved us in and we sat and talked for about an hour while she told us her life story. We offered her service and she began to cry quietly. She eventually accepted our offer and told us how she'd been needing help for a long while. She then clasped her hands, looked up, and kept repeating, "Thank you, God! Thank you, God!"
Talk about a tear-jerker!! THAT'S when you know you're doing your job;)
Before we left, she kissed our hands, patted our cheeks, told us we were "good girls" and to "ask our Mommy's and Daddy's if it was ok that we come over again to help" and then waved us goodbye with, "See you Tuesday! See you Tuesday!"
Yep....she's got my vote. Love her! Tuesday should be great:)
Welp.....checked-off bucket list items for the week included teaching an elder the correct use of YOLO, packaging meals for kids in the Phillipines, painting and hiding Easter eggs, discovering the complex GYM!!!!!!, finding out how bad week-old grapes taste, and learning that I talk A LOT in my sleep....... awwwwwwkwwwward.
Oh yea, and hearing that we lucked out on living in a nice apartment....the other sisters had an infestation of BATS in their ceiling this week........GAG ME. Yeeeuup......we're counting our blessings.
I also read Teachings of the President George Albert Smith, the chapter on enthusiasm for the work! I LOVED IT! #missionarystatus #noshame! He talked about how truly important and joyful this work is!
It was like a pep talk from coach Waqua....missionary style;) hahaha!
President Smith says, "How happy it will make you, if when that time comes, when you stand in the presence of the great Judge to give an account of the few years of life that have been spent in mortality, if these our Father’s children that He loves as much as He loves us, standing by us, say, “Heavenly Father, it was this man, it was this woman who first brought to me the information of Thy glorious truth that provoked in me a desire to seek after Thee more fervently than I had done before. It was this man or this woman who did this blessed thing for me.”
Missionaries and members!! We can be that person for those around us!!!!!!
Missionary work isn't always easy. Let's get real...it can be more awkward than Rebecca Black and Friday......but it is SO rewarding, if not now, then for the ETERNITIES!!! I have to remind myself often how a little pain equals a life-time of pleasure. One invitation can change someone's life!! And the lives of those for generations afterwards!
And one day they'll thank you for it!
Perhaps one day, like President Smith said, they'll stand beside us before God and praise our names as the one's who brought them the truth!
I can't wait for that day!!!
Onward and upward,
Sister Anna Parker
