Dear Family,
Just remember that it is unlawful to turn down anyone at the door requesting a drink of water. So it is easy for us to get water throughout the day and say a prayer in the process. There are four households of active members in our area so it would not be wise to find members for water haha. But yes, it is hot here. The past few days have been the first "real" hot days so far in the mission. But it was cloudy all weekend so it definitely wasn't the worst haha. It is heating up but I have decided not to think or talk about it because that doesn't help me at all. I am drinking a lot and pray for protection from the heat every day and I enjoy the extra added challenge which is unique to the missions down here! So I won't be talking a lot about the heat anymore. But I am staying hydrated always. I try to drink a gallon or more before I go out and 1-2 gallons while I am out. It is really difficult because I need to use the bathroom a lot and we don't have enough lessons in the day to be able to do it haha. But if you sent more drink mixes that would really help! I have one of those a day and it would save room if you took them out of the boxes.
I do appreciate your Spiritual happenings in your emails too. That is crazy about your encounter with the person who thought those bad things about Joseph Smith. I hate arguing. It doesn't sound like you were arguing at all; just talking, but I am having a hard time being bold here about what I believe in. I don't really know how to improve on that either. I will pray for boldness and confidence, study the Atonement more, and maybe testify to the mirror or something.
Thanks for the Arabic BOM! I am surprised it was hard to track down, sorry. Elder Cardoso and I are really really excited to give it to a family from Iraq that we met. There are no Arabic speaking missionaries in the mission so we figure it is okay for us to do :) And could you send some quarters if you get a chance? I could get them myself, but since you're asking... We have to pay like $3 a week in quarters for wash.
This week. This week. I don't know how to describe it fully. June is here and the Surprise Zone is expecting big things. 33 people are on date for the zone this month! Sadly, it was 36 before Elder Cardoso and I had to take Leticia and her two sons off date. It is really unfortunate. They went to California on a whim so we couldn't talk to them for eight days, then when we finally found them home Saturday, Leticia did not want to talk to us. She said she was too busy on her computer. And she didn't come to church. I don't know if I told you or not, but Hilda from my last area wasn't taken away to Mexico like we thought. She just avoided us. So this has happened to everyone we've had on date. It is really sad. Leticia definitely isn't denying the witnesses she has experienced, but she sure isn't acting on them. I thought for sure that those witnesses meant that she was prepared and that she was ready to accept our message. I am trying to learn what this all means, why it happened etc. We aren't done going over there, but we will see. We have one other on date (16-year old daughter of the S family; we are working on them one person at a time haha, but a lot of work needs to be done still), so we hope to be able to help with one baptism for the June goal.
We have begun teaching a man named Omar. He is REALLY Christian. I don't know if I told you about him yet, but it has been crazy. Elder Cardoso and I are really learning how to teach in these lessons. He has A LOT of questions/disagreements and doubts. It is useless to try to prove him wrong with scripture or answer each specific question so we are working on a raw testimony of the Book of Mormon--something that he feels if he accepts he will be damned as it says at the end of Apocalypsis. The last time we saw him, we left the invitation to read and pray. After much testifying and discussing, he accepted. He said he would read and pray to God that "whatever You want me to know, help me to know it" or something along those lines. I think that is enough for an answer. He needs to do it sincerely though, and he will! But we fasted for him yesterday just to be sure. Omar is so key though! He is such an awesome person that when he receives a witness he will turn full-circle on his beliefs as a Christian into a strong LDS member. I know he will! But he needs that witness. It has been cool with him too because I am finally starting to genuinely love the investigator. Him and Clemente.
Clemente is a non member and his wife is not active. They have two beautiful small kids and want like six more. Our lessons with them are in English. I had a great testimony builder in my Spanish skills last week in a lesson with him: I was having a hard time communicating what I felt or what I wanted to ask. It made me realize that when I am teaching in Spanish I am not lacking because of the language, but rather, my teaching! It made me happy and confident in my Spanish, but in a somewhat disappointing way when I found out that I am not a very good teacher. Teaching is hard. But I am working hard every day. And we teach by the Spirit. That is the ONLY way. Clemente is so awesome though. He will be holding the priesthood definitely before I leave this area and he will be able to bless his whole family and branches of families will be the result of it.
Have Clemente and Omar in your prayers if you can remember. I want the best for them sooooo bad. They will be great Priesthood holders if they can feel the Spirit telling him that what we are teaching is true.
Keep on being awesome. Always try to do better and never forget to pray!
Love, Elder Parry
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