Hello everyone! I'm going to apologize beforehand and just say that this email is going to be very short. I'm not going to write a giant email this week because I need to write back a lot of my friends that have written me, because I haven't responded to them in a long time! This week, we have been working in our area a lot, because we haven't had a lot to do in the office. We have 3 baptisms scheduled for February 2nd, so we are helping those 3 investigators keep progressing! We have basically been in the process of working with the members to find more people to teach. Our area is pretty small, right next to the church, and the houses are all very squished together! But the Lord is doing miracles here in our little area and we have had success. My companion and I get along really good and it is fun to work with him.

Love you all! Have a great week :)

Well this week went by a little slow, but the good part is that Elder Payne and I had a baptism on Saturday! The girl that got baptized is named Dina.  She is 16, and we have been teaching her for a little over a month now. She lives with her best friend who is a member.  She who started talking to her about the church, and brought her to church for her first time in the middle of December. After that, we started teaching her with the help of her friend and her mom.  Dina immediately told us that she was willing to get baptized, but wanted an answer to her prayers first before she made the decision. There was one point a few weeks ago where we thought she might stop progressing because some of her old friends started confusing her and saying bad things about the Church. However, we just kept telling her to pray, read her scriptures and come to church and the Lord would respond to her prayers. So then a few days later we stopped by her house, and she had a HUGE smile on her face and was more happy then we had ever seen her! We asked her if she had been praying and she nodded yes. Then we asked her if she felt like she had received an answer to her prayers that the church was true and if she should be baptized. She got a big smile on her face and said, "Yes. I don't have any doubts anymore!" We were so happy for her and put a baptismal date with her right there for the 19th. It was amazing to see the power that prayer has in the conversion of our investigators! We can show up and teach them perfectly and with the spirit, but when an investigator really humbles themselves, kneels down and asks our heavenly Father if what we have been teaching is true, that's where it makes all the difference. That's where Heavenly Father can finally fill them with His spirit and give them that answer they have been looking for.

I love and miss all you guys! Today we have a zone activity so I don't have a lot of time to write. But I uploaded pictures of the baptism to 4shared so you can see them.

Love, Elder Parrish