This week has been a great week, with the New Year I have spent a lot of time thinking about this past year, especially the last 4 months that I have been on my mission. I have been blessed to be here in Newark Delaware with Elder Thomas. I have learned so much in such a short amount of time. Often in my life I have taken for granted the many blessings I have received and these last few months have been a time of great reflection on those blessings. I hope that I may take better advantage of the time that I have while I am here.
Lately I have had trouble relating everything I study to missionary work, this morning though, something happened, not really sure, well it was the spirit, but I was able to look at things in a different way. I read an article out of the most recent Ensign about a man who felt like he wasn't fulfilling his purpose in life because he wasn't married. He was preparing the sacrament and notice little tiny holes in the bottom of the cups. They would slowly drain as they sat there. He thought about what that cup needed to do, hold water, and how there were many things that could have been wrong that wouldn't have prevented the cup from fulfilling its purpose. It could have been misshaped or the wrong color. But it would have held water. When I first read it, I didn't think a whole lot about it, it was good and I had felt I understood it, but nothing stood out to me. Then when we went to companionship study, Elder Thomas wanted to just share things that could be used in the work. I was worried as I realized that my studies were ineffective. I just started talking about this article and words came into my head. I have recently been thinking a lot about fulfilling my purpose as a missionary and have struggled with my imperfections. I see others around me that seem to have no trouble with the things that I do. As I thought of this talk, I thought of what the results of those imperfections are, do they prevent me from fulfilling my purpose? Is it something that I should be as worried about as I am? It comforted me to have those thoughts and to feel at peace with myself. Something I hope to do is to effectively improve myself, to focus on those attributes that are most needed, mainly the Christ-like attributes.
We have recently been working with a family from Nigeria, there are four children. Sam, Toby, Melody, and Treasure. Sam is 21 and Toby is 19 and Treasure is 10. We met them trying to find a less active member who lives next door. They have come out and played basketball with us on Saturdays and we have taught them twice. They are a great family, they pray together every morning. We have not met the mother yet, as she has been traveling for business in Nigeria and their father still lives in Nigeria. They asked their mother if they could be baptized, and she told them they already have been and can’t do it again. We look forward to this week, when we will get to meet her and help her to feel the spirit that her children have felt. It has been great to see this family grow in the gospel together. I can testify that the gospel is best learned in a family environment.
I know that this New Year will bring much success in this area and in this mission, I pray that I may continue to be a willing and worthy tool in the Lords hands.
Love, Elder Parker
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