Pictures Unforgettable Christmas

Maddy & Brother Austin

Oh Happy Day! Maddy's Baptism!

I love this girl!

She had such great support at the baptism!

Sister Meili came back for a visit!

Best friends for life..and forever!

Helping with Christmas morning breakfast at Bishop's home!

Love the Brady family!

Yup..it's true.

Sweet Sister Plomgren!! love her!

Christmas Eve!

We got our pj's! xoxo

Unforgettable Christmas

Hello everyone!!!

I hope you Christmas was Merry and Bright! I can't believe this year

is nearly over! It is 2016! Where did all the time go? My first

Christmas away from home will most definitely never be forgotten! What

a special week it has been! Wednesday was Easily the BEST DAY of my

mission. Maddy was baptized and it was such an unforgettable

experience. We spent all afternoon decorating and making special for

her. The turnout was amazing...There were over 100+ people there to

support her-- the ward, the stake presidency, president Woodbury, and

so many of her friends! The whole chapel was full, it felt like

sacrament meeting! Sadly, her parents wouldn't come... But there were

so many people there to support. I have never seen Maddy so happy, the

spirit was so strong. I know that the Lord was so pleased and proud of

Maddys decision to be baptized, and the spirit was so strong. For all

that she sacrificed to choose the right and be brave, pressing forward

with faith. The program was wonderful, Connor gave a talk on baptism,

Connors mom and sister sang beautifully while I accompanied them to a

special comprised version of "I know that my redeemer lives." Then I

gave a talk on the Holy Ghost. Afterwards, Maddy got up in front of

EVERYONE and bore her testimony. I bawled like a baby the whole time.

That was one of the most tender sweet experiences I have ever had in

my whole life and I wouldn't trade it for anything in the whole world.

I am so grateful for Maddy, I am so thankful the Lord blessed me with

the opportunity to teach her and have her  forever become a part of my

life. The lord knows Maddys divine potential and I know he has a work

for her to do. She is such an incredible girl and I am so proud of

her. What an amazing gift to give the Savior for Christmas. And what a

wonderful gift to receive from God. Maddy was confirmed on Sunday by

brother O'Brien. Words cannot express how much I love Maddy and the

people in this ward! It's moments like these that make being a

missionary the most rewarding experience. I am grateful to be a

missionary, I testify that the greatest joy you can feel in this life

is helping others come closer to the Savior. This was definitely a

Christmas I will never forget.

This week I have been pondering and studying about the power of the

atonement. Sister Plomgren and I are studying Romans with one of our

recent converts and the apostle Paul teaches a lot about the doctrine

of Christ the the grace of the Saviors atonement. I don't think that

we can fully comprehend the power of the atonement. I have come to

gain a greater understanding of Jesus Christ's atonement since the

time I have been out of my mission. I rely on the healing and the

strengthening power of the atonement each day as I strive daily to

become a better follower of Jesus Christ. I have a testimony that the

Lord takes weak things and makes them strong. There is no way that we

could make it through this life without a savior. Jesus Christ gives

us the strength to endure whatever challenges that we have to face. We

are sent to this earth to be tested and tried, and challenges are part

of this life, and also part of gods plan. However, because God loved

us so much he sent he son Jesus Christ to be a savior, and I find

peace in knowing there is not any trial or hardship that the savior

cannot heal. EVERYONE can be strengthened through Christ's atonement.

There is a good quote in January's ensign about the Atonement by Elder

Gerrit W. Gong: "Fully accepting our Savior’s Atonement can increase

our faith and give us courage to let go of constraining expectations

that we are somehow required to be or to make things perfect. … We can

gratefully accept, as God’s sons and daughters, that we are His

greatest handiwork, even though we are still a work in progress.”

God has made it so simple, all we have to do is humble ourselves and

rely on him...it is our responsibility to let him in. Sometimes what I

struggle with is.. that I am sort of a self willed person....  Take

things on myself thinking I can handle it and don't need any help. Of

course I am humbled each and every day and I am so grateful for the

gods patience with me and that he helps me realize I can't do this

myself! Missions are hard-- but LIFE is hard, and thankfully because

of the savior Jesus Christ we don't have to do it by ourselves. I know

that we are each given our own personal challenges and trials to help

us grow closer to the Lord. I testify that any time we overcome with

the strength of the lord our faith and testimony grows.

What a wonderful time of year to reflect upon what we can improve on

to increase our faith in the Savior. Every year my family individually

chooses a gift to give to the Savior throughout the new year. I

challenge each of you to do the same and ponder and pray about a gift

you can give the Savior this year to help draw closer to him.

My gift to the Savior 2016

- My gift to the Savior this year will be to serve him with all my

might, mind, and strength in helping to bring others unto him through

faith, repentance, baptism, and receiving the Holy Ghost.  Striving to

follow him with full purpose of heart. Understanding the importance of

serving others and helping them to strengthen their testimonies and

endure to the end.

I love each of you and I hope you had a wonderful Christmas season!

Happy new year!!     Thank you for all of the love and support!!

Love,

Sister Parke

Pictures Reason to Believe

We helped a woman in our ward who is bedridden set up her Christmas tree this week!

Zone temple trip!

Santa Claus came to the mission home and gave us all new gas cards. Yay!

Loving all the Christmas Cards!

I made Sister P some French toast for breakfast. Makes me feel less homesick. I miss making food for you guys!

This is ISABELLA. Diane's daughter! Her call has been assigned! We are just waiting for it to come in the mail!

Heading home after a great day in the city. Trump bldg behind us.

Pday breakfast out with Maddy, Connor and the Elders!

Reason to Believe

Hello everyone!!

Christmas is in four days? Oh my goodness where has the time gone? I

love this time of year and the opportunity we have to ponder and

reflect on the life of the Savior. What a great week it has been!!

Here are a few of the new things going on in Buffalo Grove.

So Maddy isn't going to byuidaho this next semester. There are a

couple reasons that factor into this decision. First, she wrote a

letter to her parents telling them about her plan to be baptized and

going off to school.... Asserting her position with the church. After

her parents read the letter, her dad had a really good talk with

her-the first positive one about the church ever- he said that he

acknowledges that she is going to be baptized and that he is

respecting her choice even though he doesn't necessarily agree with

it. He did say however, that he wants her to wait until next semester

to go to BYUIDAHO so that they can go with her to tour the school and

take some time off so that they will be able to help move her to

school, which with this short notice would not be possible. The second

reason, is purely financial. Maddy is paying for school herself and

needs to save more money before she heads off to school so that she

can avoid debt. But I am so glad the miracles regarding school,

because without them she would not be getting baptized on Wednesday!

School can wait, but what is most important is baptism... And now

Maddys parents are softening their hearts. She was willing to

compromise her baptism to go to school but the opposite occurred...

Her parents are accepting baptism but asking her to put off going away

to school. We are VERY EXCITED for her baptism this Wednesday and know

it will be a very special experience.

We made the phone call on Wednesday to schedule a hand-off lesson with

Luis for this upcoming Tuesday. He really needs Spanish-speaking

missionaries. But, the law of compensation is real! About a half hour

after we called the spanish elders, someone texted. They said, "I got

your number from Danny. I want to learn more about being Mormon. Do

you have time to help me?" So that threw us for a loop! We had met

Danny in McDonald's Saturday night. It had been a long day and it was

8:30 PM and finishing up contacting at Walmart. We wanted to go home,

but Sister Plomgren felt a strong prompting to go to McDonald's. We

get there and there is only one couple there, and I did NOT want to

talk to them. They had foul mouths and were kind of rude in general.

So we sit there for a couple minutes, and sister Plomgren said to me,

"Let's just go home",  I felt like We needed to show them the video,

then we could go home. We ask if we show can them the Christmas video,

and after he says, "Yeah, I dated a girl who was a Mormon. Her dad's a

bishop in Salt Lake City. I talked with him a little about the church

and I thought it was pretty interesting. I just like learning about

religion." We invite him to church Sunday, and get his contact

information (his name is Danny). I don't really think much of it, to

be honest because he was pretty involved with his own religion.

Tuesday, we get that text from his friend Mike, and set up an

appointment to meet with him! What a miracle!

Random little miracle moment: we were in the mall food court (where

the people are) doing some contacting and we were taking a break and

had a Book of Mormon out on the table. This woman walks by saying

"Nice book!" and Sister Plomgren and I just look at each other and

turn back to her. We ask if she had ever heard of the Book of Mormon

and she says, "Oh, I thought that was a Bible! I've never heard of the

Book of Mormon" so we explain what it was and she says "Oh, I'll have

to check it out!" and we were like, "Well you can have this one". She

takes it, thanks us, and walks off. Sister Plomgren and I were kind of

dazed for a few minutes because that seriously doesn't happen often so

when it does it's kind of awesome.

The whole mission has started a new initiative where we do two hours

of personal finding a day. Sister Plomgren and I have taken that and

added two active member visits and two less-active member visits, so

that we give our days a little structure and that we have "all our

nets in the water" (we are using all our resources to find people to

teach). So we had done our two hours of finding, and we had just

finished our second active member. We went to visit our first

less-active member (and mind you it was about 25 degrees out and

Sister Plomgren and I were freezing), and she opens the door and says,

"Are you from the church?" We answer with "Yes, yes we are" and she

says, "Then I don't want to talk to you" and with that she slams the

door. Most people are civil with us and say something along the lines

of "Thanks for visiting, but this isn't the time that I want to come

back to church right now" and then we give them our card with a number

to call or something like that so that they can call us if we ever

need anything. But this woman's rejection really did a number on us

for some reason. So we were hitting our spiritual low for the night.

We go to get gas and try to figure out what we should do. When sister

Plomgren pulled out the book to record how much gas we buy and how

much it was (we keep a lot of records here), these CD cases fall out.

The CD's are from a band called Remembering Rome and sister Plomgren

asked, "Who is Remembering Rome?" and I say, "You know pretty much

everything I do about this car". So I throw them back in there without

a second thought. Then we were looking through our list of people that

we want to visit and this one name jumps out at us.  We both felt like

we needed to go visit this man. so we go to where he lives, which was

only about five minutes from where the gas station was. We get there,

knock on the door, and his mom answers. We ask, "Is Mike home?" and

she says "Yes, let me go get him for you. It's freezing out, would you

like to come in?" Wow! Usually people make us wait outside, even when

it's cold out. So that was a little tender mercy in itself. She gets

Mike and we introduce ourselves to him and we get to talking and he

invites us to take us seat in the living room. Yeah, that doesn't

happen ever. We chat a little about everything and he tells us that he

was in the band Remembering Rome. My mouth falls open at that point

because what are the odds? I have seriously looked through that glove

compartment about 10 times looking for a pen and have never seen those

CDs before. That was so cool! We invite him to church and the

scripture study class that the missionaries run and he said that he

would come! That was seriously one of the coolest things that I had

ever seen.

I have gained a testimony that as we obey and listen to the promptings

of the spirit they will happen more frequently. I have been studying

and pondering about the Holy Ghost this week as i prepare my talk for

Maddys baptism. The Holy Ghost has such a strong influence on my life

and I know that without the companionship of the Holy Ghost I would

not be where I am today. As I was studying... I noticed something that

finally clicked in my mind....everything we do as members of the

church is intended to invite and bless us with the companionship of

the Holy Ghost! Annnnd the reason that this church is a true and

living church is because of the gift of the Holy Ghost! The Holy Ghost

testifies of the truth and bears witness of the Savior Jesus Christ. I

love the quote by President Faust, "the gift of the Holy Ghost is the

greatest guarantor of inward peace in our unstable world." I have a

strong testimony of this. On Friday I had the opportunity to go to the

temple with my zone for Christmas. What an unforgettable experience.

The peace that I felt is indescribable... And can only be felt by and

through the Holy Ghost. The Holy Ghost is how we are able to feel gods

love for us. Even though he is not physically here with us, he can

always spiritually be with us through the Holy Ghost, if we live

worthily. I testify of the power in striving to keep the spirit of the

Lord with us always. Life is so much more simple as our thoughts are

directed to the Savior.

I have also been reflecting a lot upon the teachings of the Savior in

his mortal ministry. My heart has been filled with the spirit

countless times as I have pondered upon the life of Jesus Christ and

his goodness. This is a Christmas I will never forget; the Savior is

the hope of the world, and I don't think I fully understood this

clearly until my mission. Jesus Christ was born so that he could be

the example to us of how we need to live to make it back to our father

in heaven. Without him, we would be lost. I am so grateful for the

Savior, and his atoning sacrifice. I am grateful that he was willing

to come to this earth and live a perfect life and because he loved

each of us so much, he died for all of our sins. I was studying in

Luke chapter 23 this morning, and read about the crucifixion of the

Savior. Tears filled my eyes as I remembered that the atonement is the

reason why Jesus Christ was born. He came to this earth to save us

all. And this is why we sing... JOY TO THE WORLD. I love my Savior and

Redeemer Jesus Christ. I am grateful for his infinite atonement. I

know that he was born to offer blessing of peace and hope to each and

everyone of us. I am grateful for this time of year to remember Jesus

Christ and all he has done for us. I hope you all choose to believe.

Believe in Jesus Christ. Alma 33:22 the reason to believe is found in

the Son of God. I wish you all a Merry Christmas! I miss you so much,

but I am grateful for the opportunity that I have to serve! I love

you!

I challenge you to read Jesus Christ our Master and More in the April

2000 ensign!

Love,

Sister Parke

Pictures P-day in Chicago!

Deep-dish Chicago Style Pizza

#itsthebest

PIctures 12.23.15

Gingerbread House Night at the O'Briens! So Fun!

Thanks for chocolates Dad! ;)

Yes, my favorite soup in the world!

Helping Diane set up her tree

My favorite family from Ghana! 

Thank you so much for the pillowcase Abbie! I love it!

Letter from EQUADOR. Made my whole entire week!

Dipping homemade carmels with Sister Kappelman! Yum!

Ending the day right with a frosty! 

12.23.15

Week of many miracles

Hello Everyone!

What a great week!! (: the first of many miracles is the fact that it

has been higher than 50 degrees ALL WEEK. absolutely amazing. Sister

Plomgren and I are soaking it all in. (; literally. It's been quite

rainy.  We are headed into the city today for P-day so that will be

quite fun! There is so much to catch up on, sadly I only have a

limited time today.. So I will share the amazing experiences we had

this week with Maddy!

MADDY IS FOR SURE GETTING BAPTIZED ON THE 23rd. It will be at 6:30pm.

I cannot tell you how happy I am for her. It has not been an easy

road, yet she has remained so strong and the Lord is blessing her. So,

We have been suuuuper busy preparing for her baptism... We want it to

be so special for her! We are getting decorations from the ward and

decorating the RS room! It's going to be like a winter wonderland!

Maddys favorite treat is dipped strawberries so we will be making

those at the kappelmans, as well as chocolates for her baptism. It

will be such an a,amazing day! Maddy has asked me to speak on the Holy

Ghost, and play I know my redeemer lives at her baptism. Yes you could

say I'm a little nervous. But it will be great.

So as far as BYUIDAHO goes, after 3 weeks of not hearing back from

BYU-idahos admission office. We finally got things figured out and

Maddy was accepted. Then miraculously she was assigned to the winter

semester.  Tuesday night Maddy told her parents about BYUIDAHO ... It

did NOT go well at all. Her parents are  still highly against the

church and want nothing to do with it, nor do they want Maddy to be

baptized or attend a church school. This obviously is very hard on

Maddy, because she now has to choose between the church and her

family. This last week has been tough on her but I am amazed by her

resilience and strong faith. After pondering and praying about what to

do, Maddy has received the answer to be baptized and go to school at

BYU Idaho. And ever since she has made that decision everything has

fallen into place.

I know I am meant to be here to help Maddy, and that is the best

feeling in the whole world. Before I decided to serve a mission I was

feeling confused as to what the next decision to take in my life. I

felt prompted to apply for BYU Idaho and was accepted, I was planning

on going to school there and researched apartments and tuition,

classes and programs. As you know obviously I didn't end up going to

school there because I am here on a mission now, but until now I never

fully understood why I had the prompting to apply there. Maybe I had

to go through that to help Maddy get things figured out for school, it

has been such a blessing. Tender mercies. The Lord is ever so aware of

Maddy. I love her so much and I can feel Gods immense love for her.

How proud he is of her for her faith and he is blessing her. Maddy is

such an amazing daughter of God, and I am so grateful for the

opportunity I have to help her grow closer to the savior. What a sweet

experience it is. I can now start to understand the scripture in D & C

18:10-16 the joy that is felt in bringing souls unto Christ. I

wouldn't change this experience for anything else.

So, the STRANGEST thing happened on Saturday morning. We woke up with

a text from Maddys mom asking if we wanted to meet at her church for a

cookie walk. So we decided we would go and met her there, a little

nervous because of the situation with Maddy. We show up and meet her

there and she is THE FRIENDLIEST she has ever been. She welcomed us

with hugs and said, "I just want to get you two some homemade cookies

for the holidays, I am sure it is so hard to be away from home." We

talked with her for about an hour and things were just like normal.

She was happy as ever and was so sweet. I really feel as if the Lord

is helping to soften Maddys parents hearts. Even maddy said she has

noticed an extreme difference since she made the decision to be

baptized. The Lord blesses us for our faith!

On Friday we had a really cool experience! It has been a long day and

sister Plomgren had been sick all week and I was just beginning to not

feel so great. We both were a little discouraged and didn't really

have the desire to talk to anyone. We decided to go into a Mariano's

to try and contact a few more people. Sister Plomgren sat down I I

started talking to a young woman who worked there. She was so nice and

friendly... Which was a good for a change (; Her name is Dorina and

she is from Bulgaria! Turns out her best friend is Mormon! That's not

even the coolest part. Do you remember back in October when our ward

mission leader got us flowers and hot chocolate when we were having a

hard day? Well, turns out Dorina is the one who helped Serve him! She

remembered him because he told her he was Mormon and wanted to know

where the church was! This Sunday just so happened to be Invitation

Sunday... And we invited her to come to church with us! It helped

uplift our day and reassured that God is always there and is aware of

our efforts. So excited to get to know Dorina better and hopefully

teach her about the gospel!

So sister Plomgren and I have been studying a chapter of Luke a day up

until Christmas. How amazing it has been to study in depth about the

saviors life on earth and how he lived. This week I was studying in

Luke 18 about the parable of the widow and the unjust judge. I love

the verse, "pray always, and not to faint." To faint means to become

discouraged or weary or tire of something... It then made me ponder on

the importance of enduring to the end. I have come to the conclusion

that the key to enduring to the end and avoiding discouragement of

growing weary is remembering the purpose in doing something... Whether

it be for church... School... Work.. Etc.  I've noticed that most

people who are struggling with working hard or preserving through the

hard times don't remember their purpose of why they are doing it. It

is not necessarily about individual strength, it's about the strength

of the purpose. My mind reflects back to the difference between Nephi

and Laman and Lemuel in the Book of Mormon. Nephi prayed and learned

for himself the purpose and importance of returning to Jerusalem. He

also had great faith. Laman and Lemuel never tried to recognize the

purpose and so that is why they struggled to put forth the effort.

My dad taught me... And continues to teach me the value of hard work

and to always remember my purpose. People who remember their purpose

and keep it strong, form the habit of doing things failures do not

like to do... And then they succeed. On a mission, it is critical to

everyday remember the purpose of why I am here, because if I don't,

well like Laman and Lemuel... My faith begins to dwindle and How easy

it becomes to lose hope. Perseverance is the secret to success. I

found this quote in my studies this week. "Perseverance is rooted in

the foundational gospel principles of faith and hope. Perseverance

reflects our faith that our actions will bring the lords blessings

into our lives."  the only way to Endure to the end is through the

savior Jesus Christ. through him we a able to find strength we never

imagined. Peace to our souls, and happiness to our countenance. I am

so grateful for the opportunity to be a missionary, especially this

time of year!! To understand the true meaning of Christmas, we only

have to remove the last syllable and remember CHRIST. Merry

Christmas!!

Sending lots of love from the City of Chicago!!

Love,

Sister Parke

Pictures Power of Prayer

Making Cranberry Lemon Shortbread! Yum!

A little fun in the kitchen....

My Packages finally came! Yay!

Can't wait to see what is inside!

Stocking for you and for me!

Extra spoiled by Aunt Pam with lots of goodies and gifts

And another stocking too!

More of what i love..butternut squash soup!

And the stockings were hung...

Sweet girl who I hope will teach my children to play the harp one day!

Exchanges with Sister Sufia from Somoa!

Love this sweetie!

Thank you for my Advent Calendar Emi!

More gifts for under the "trees" :)

Yum!

My life

Making snowflakes since it's 50 degrees outside now!

All ready for Christmas! So pretty!