New Life

Hello Everyone!!

Hello from Chicago! Things are starting to warm up a bit here and I

could not be more excited! This is my favorite time of the year,

everything is coming back to life and reminds me of the resurrection

of the Savior. The Easter initiative video that the church has

produced is all about finding new life in Jesus Christ. It is

powerful! I am so excited for all of you to see it! Perks of being a

missionary... (; isn't it such an exciting time of the year?

Celebrating new life! What a great time of year to share the gospel

and the good news that HE LIVES and BECAUSE OF HIM we are able to live

again. Ah, I just get so excited, because as a missionary... This is

the most powerful part of our message! It was no coincidence that we

were able to teach Carleen all about the resurrection in our last

lesson with her! We were able to teach her in the mission home again

with President and Sister Woodbury. Carleen has so many amazing

questions all about exactly what we were talking about! Her aunt

recently just passed away and the lesson about the resurrection of

Jesus Christ and eternal life was perfect timing. She said that

everything is just lining up and falling into place. She feels better

and recognizes the goodness that comes from the gospel. She desires to

know how to prepare for baptism and when she will be baptized.

Carleen ended the lesson with the most powerful prayer and testified

that she knew the things we taught her were true! The  spirit was

incredibly strong. Teaching Carleen with president and sister Woodbury

is a cherished memory I will most definitely never forget.

On Tuesday, I went on exchanges with sister mangar this week. She is

from Nepal and converted to the church 3 years ago and decided to

serve a mission! She is so awesome and an amazing at contacting. So

the day of the exchange it decided to be a blizzard. Why? I have no

idea, but it made it quite the adventure! We witnessed many miracles

and a stronger testimony that even when things don't go the way that

we've had planned, as long as we are obedient and righteous we will

always accomplish the things the lord has planned. So sadly our

appointment with Brianna  fell through, at first I was quite

disappointed... But then we still had the opportunity to meet with the

member we had scheduled to come with us. She really opened up to us

and the lesson we taught her was EXACTLY what she needed at the

moment. It was a tender mercy and a very spiritual experience. Another

cool miracle on the exchange.. We met with one of our recent

converts. She has been really struggling with her testimony and

understanding the scriptures and feeling her prayers were being

answered and if God even knew her. Sister mangar was so awesome and

boldly asked her, "have you been keeping all of the commandments? "

come to find out, she hadn't been reading her scriptures in months!

She claimed she didn't know how to read the scriptures... So I handed

her my Book of Mormon and told her to open it and to start reading.

She OPENED it to the EXACT scripture I had studied that morning as I

prayed to know what to share with her. It was the COOOLEST experience

ever. She asked... "how did you do that? How did you know that is

exactly what I needed right now? How did you know where to find the

answer to my prayers?" The spirit is incredibly powerful. I have a

strong Testimony of being able to discern the needs of others through

the guidance of the Holy Ghost.

Then, we were walking to get to the train and then felt prompted to go

visit a less active man named Eddy. Didn't really want to go....

Because it was blizzarding outside.... But sis mangar is incredibly

ambitious and we started the trek to his apartment. We finally got

there and the door man I think felt so bad for us that he buzzed us

in. We start talking with him... And then moments later... Eddy comes

walking down the stairs and says "sisters! I'm so glad to see you! I

have been prayin you would come!" Wow. It was powerful. Eddy was

baptized almost 2 years ago and sadly relapsed into drugs. However

over the past few months he has been completely clean and is handing

his life back to God and has been attending church the past few weeks!

MIRACLES. What a happy exchange.

We were able to teach Brie a lesson this week and it was so awesome.

Even though we have only been teaching her for the past four weeks I

am able to notice such a change in her. She read from the Book of

Mormon.... YAY. And we asked her how she felt... She described it as

if she felt "enlightened" we then read alma 32:28 with her all about

faith and experimenting on our faith and how it enlightens our minds

and hearts. SO COOL.

On Friday we had mission council. Wow, it was incredibly powerful. On

Thursday we received a phone call from the APs asking if sister

Patterson and I would be willing to teach for a half hour in mission

council. Most. Intimidating. Thing. Ever. Buuut after all was said and

done it was such an amazing experience and opportunity I am so

grateful for. We taught about the importance of working with members

and how missionaries and members need to work together in hastening

the lords work. President Woodbury has caught the vision of working

with the members and we are going to Begin a huge focus as a mission

council in helping our missionaries.. Help the members to "catch the

vision!" I don't know how to describe mission council. Other than it

is one of the most spiritual meetings and filled will enlightenment

and receiving direction from God and the spirit on how the work should

go forth. I truly testify of the importance of councils within the

church. You know you're a missionary when a four hour meeting is the

highlight of your whole month. (: I'm so excited for the direction

this mission is heading. President Woodbury is on his homestretch of

his time here an is giving it all he has! I am standing there right

there with him giving the lord all I am into this work. The time is

now to focus all of our efforts as a mission in helping this work go

forth.

On Saturday our awesome Ward mission leader took us out to lunch at a

fancy authentic Chinese restaurant and Morgan and Cecila were able to

join us. The food was quite interesting.... Not going to even ask what

I ate... But the best part was, being able to spend time with Morgan

and Cecila! We talked for a while and Cecilia wants to start taking

the missionary lessons with Morgan.! YAY. We asked them how they

became interested in learning about Christianity and about God. They

shared with us a special experience they had with prayer. Two years

ago they had moved to America and were traveling and their car broke

down and they were stranded in the middle of no where. Although they

were not raised to believe in god they had heard about him and knew

very little... But they did know about prayer. Cecilia said that they

prayed and said to god if he would help them then they would believe

in him. How strong their faith was and sure enough, minutes after

praying to God, a man showed up to their car parked on the side of the

road and asked if he could help. Morgan and Cecilia both could not

deny that experience and started to seek out God in their lives. Isn't

that such a cool story?? I got chills when they were telling me about

it. They are both so amazing and their desire to learn inspires me!

Romeo is doing very well! He went contacting with us on Saturday, we

took him on the trains, buses, walking down the streets... You name

it! He is practically a professional missionary! It was very fun. His

progression in the gospel is inspiring. He has received the priesthood

and now passes the sacrament every Sunday. He received his temple

recommend and we are hopefully going with him on Friday to to

baptisms. His testimony is so powerful and strong. On Sunday he got up

to bear his testimony and I am touched by his faith. Ahhh.. Sunday was

such a wonderful day! Carleen came to church with Aaron. We fasted

with her that her parents hearts may be softened. We have a lesson

with her tomorrow night and I am so excited... She is progressing very

well and being able to witness her testimony grow is inspiring!! I

already have so much love for her!

Also, another miracle.... One of the less actives that we have been

working with over the past couple months (Arleen) actually came to

church after five months!!! It was AWESOME. She bore her testimony and

it was sooooo powerful. She testified about the importance of coming

to church and partaking of the sacrament and how crucial it is to

maintain our testimony. We went over and had a lesson with her later

that evening and wow, it was so cool. Arleen told us how she made a

promise to God that she would come to church EVERY week from here on

out. Talk about faith building experience! So... Because of my

experience about faith last night.. This morning I have been studying

on faith and how to develop our faith. Truly the foundation of our

testimony is FAITH in Jesus Christ  and if our faith is not

continually being strengthened how easy it is for our foundation to

fall. Working with active and less active members and noticing the

differences between their testimonies helps me to understand the

importance of doing the small and simple things each an everyday and

COMMITTING TO CONTINUALLY STRENGTHEN OUR FAITH. Each Sunday as we

partake of the sacrament we commit to the Lord that we will always

remember him. As members do we really understand what that means? To

always remember him? The Lord knew we would need to partake of the

sacrament weekly to remind ourselves the importance of our faith. One

thing that really stood out to me this week is that regardless of who

we are or where we are or how strong our testimonies may be we are

never immune to temptation. Each of us are at risk of losing our faith

if we do not do the small and simple things each and every day.

Sincere prayer and reading the scriptures daily and critical in order

to remain firm in the faith. I love Mosiah chapter 5 in the Book of

Mormon talking about faith and encouraging us to Be steadfast and

immovable! I know the lord is there, and he is committed to each one

of his children. I testify that as we focus on doing the best we can,

the savior will take us where we are and he lift us and make us into

who he knows we can become. When we fall, he picks us back up and

through him we can become better. My new favorite quote this week is

by Elder Scott, "I am just me, but with the lords help I am enough." I

testify that I know this is true. If we could truly understand Gods

love for us, we would never have a moment of doubt or discouragement.

We come to feel gods love through prayer and scripture study! I

encourage and challenge each of you this week to set apart time each

day to sincerely pray and study the scriptures! I promise that as you

do you will receive the comforting assurance that Heavenly Father is

aware of you and he LOVES YOU. Have a wonderful week!

Love,

Sister Rachel Parke