Do YOU Know it?

Hello Family and Friends!

What a week. Can't believe April is over and now May Is here! Sister

Webber and I are suuuper busy and it makes the time just fly by! This

transfer is nearly over!! Ahhh! So sad because president Woodbury only

has one more transfer with us! I don't want him to leave, but I am

also excited for the new mission president. Alright so, just to jump

into this week. Sister Webber and I decided to prune the vineyard

(clean out our area book) and pretty much dropped a large amount of

our investigators who just didn't seem to be progressing. We

considered it to be an act of faith, and the Lord is blessing us with

so many more people to teach.

This week we met with Jess twice. We had an amazing lesson with Her

and taught about the plan of Salvation. She is progressing very well!

So many questions and just an honest sincere desire to learn more and

build a relationship with the savior. I already love her so much! We

are meeting with her again this evening. I am very excited!  On

Tuesday the Lord blessed us two new investigators! One of them was

from the member referral I mentioned about last week.. Stefanie. It

was so cool! We met up with her and got to know her better.. She is

from Brazil and just moved here a year ago. She is studying to become

a clinical psychologist! How awesome is that? But it gets even

better... She is genuinely interested in learning about the Book of

Mormon! We taught her the restoration.. And she was so grateful.. She

kept thanking us.. Thank you for telling me this! Thank you! Then when

we gave her the Book of Mormon she was so excited. She definitely has

a lot of desire to learn more and is such a sweet girl. I look forward

to getting to know her better and teaching her more!

This week I went on exchanges with sister Stringham... Aka my soul

sister. I love her so much. Wow it was incredible! So many miracles.

We met with a man we are teaching named Aquila. He is from Africa and

met the missionaries a few months ago. He has come to church a couple

of times and is genuinely interested... So of course... We are

teaching him the lessons! We taught him all about the restoration of

the gospel. It was so powerful. I wish I could record every detail. He

attended Carleens baptism and told us that baptism is something he

wants to work towards and prepare himself for. He came to all three

hours of church on Sunday and he LOVED it. He is definitely an answer

to the prayers especially for the SA branch!!

ALL DAY Saturday it was POURING rain! Buuut missionaries love rain..

Because when you are cold and wet.. The law of compensation is real...

And it is pretty much instant miracles. The best. On Saturday we had

countless miracles.! Cool story. So we were standing by the bus stop

waiting in the rain. Literally I was sopping wet. We had missed our

bus before so we had a longer wait.. I had forgot my umbrella in the

apartment. Who forgets there umbrella in the apartment on a day like

this?! Anyways I was praying to Heavenly Father for strength to not

murmur and to be optimistic.. I REALLY was wishing for an umbrella.

Not even 30 seconds later a car pulls up to the bus stop. An older

woman gets out of the car... Walks up to me and hands me an umbrella

and says I need to give this to you. And then without another word

walks away. I am 99.9% sure it was an angel. Haha. I was just standing

there thinking... Man, God is so good. So yes. God sent me an umbrella

in an all day rainstorm.

Unfortunately most all of our appointments fell through so we were

stuck in the rain trying to find people to teach.. And I don't know if

many of you have noticed.. But finding people to listen on the rain is

quite difficult.. So we sought shelter in a nearby McDonald's. Didn't

have too much success (so we thought) until later that evening we

received a text from a man we had contacted earlier named Danilo he is

from Brazil. He wants to learn more about the church! We have a follow

up appointment with him on Tuesday!

This week we also had an awesome lesson with Cynthia! We started

talking about the gospel of Jesus Christ and talking about how Jesus

Christ set the example of baptism for us. She came to church on Sunday

which was awesome! Her boyfriend left to go back to China.. So

hopefully she will have more time to meet with us now! Hmm.. What

else? Last night we met with the APs and our branch president Sunday

night to discuss ways of how to help the branch grow stronger and how

we could help rescue others and bring them back into the fold! It was

very helpful and the lord is blessing us with revelation on how to

help the branch!

Okay. Last miracle moment of the day... We had just got done with our

last appointment.. Still raining.. Keep in mind.. And we were cutting

it close on time to make it home for curfew. We were in a reaaaaaally

sketch part of Chicago and it was kinda dark and scary! I was kinda

lost and didn't know where to go.. Prayin for a bus and some sort of

direction.. Seconds later I saw our bus stopped at a red light in an

intersection up the street we RAN to the bus and the bus driver was so

kind he let us on the bus even when it wasn't even a legit stop. No

one else was on the bus at the time and I'm pretty sure God sent the

bus to us.. Because we made it home safely and right on time! I know

when we are obedient God blesses us in ways we can't even imagine!

I have been reflecting a lot this week about the foundation of my

testimony. Do I truly believe this? Why do I believe and follow the

leaders that I have? It all comes down to whether or not Joseph Smith

is a true prophet of God. Each time I teach the restoration is when

the spirit has born the strongest witness in my heart. I KNOW IT.

Joseph smith saw God and his son Jesus Christ and heard his voice. God

speaks to his children again! I am grateful to all of those who have

helped me to develop and strengthen my faith in the savior. Sometimes

we think that we must have a big moment of confirmation... But it is

small and simple things. I know we have a prophet on Earth today who

leads and guides this church. I know President Monson receives

authority from Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ and is truly guided

and directed by the authority that is higher and more knowing than we

can comprehend. I do not understand everything, but I rely on the

knowledge that I do know. I KNOW without a doubt in my mind that the

Book of Mormon is the word of God and it is written for our day. I

know that hastening the work of salvation is the work of the Lord and

nothing will stop it from going forth. I was studying in Mormon 8 this

morning and came across the scripture, "For eternal purposes of the

Lord shall roll on, until all his promises shall be fulfilled."  How

true it is. This is Gods work. We ALL have the responsibility to be a

part of it. God is looking out for all of his children. As long as we

are doing all that we can and we are TRYING I testify his grace will

make up for the rest. I know God is there. He loves us personally and

individually. I love being a missionary and having the opportunity to

help others understand who he is and build a relationship with him.

I love you all! Thank you for your love and support! Have a great week!

Love,

Sister Rachel Parke

Favorite quote of the week.

"If our faith does not change the way we live, if our beliefs do not

influence our daily decisions, our religion is vain"

Dieter F Uchtdorf