WEEK 23! Love, Share, Invite

Hello hello beautiful friends, it's your favorite sister again. How is everyone doing? Hows life? I hope everyone is finding joy in all that they are doing:) 
 

     I'm starting to love Springfield more and more the longer I am here. Being in a bigger city again has been fun! We are working hard on getting the area going and of course FHAM is going great! On my mission I never thought I'd say I'm getting use to sitting at a computer for 7 hours a day but I'm finding the joy and postives that come with it.This week I honestly felt so blessed! I was able to be apart of so many amazing things, visit new places and meet so many awesome people!


Tuesday: We woke up early and helped at seminary! They had a passover meal which was so cool. We ate lamb, unleavened bread, bitter herbs, matza, and *red sparkling cider*. We sat at long tables to represent the last supper. It was such a neat experience! Surprisingly the food was kinda good bit a little interesting to say the least. We filmed some friends in the Springfield and Eugene area which is always so fun! I'm really loving filming and being able to travel around the area to do it.  


 Wednesday: On the way home from the office we felt prompted to stop somewhere but we didn't know where. We found ourselves in the Safeway parking lot. We went in and met the baker over in the bakery. We bought some cinnamon rolls and shared them with her and invited her to do a Bible study with us! It's amazing to see that when we follow the simplest and smallest of promptings we are lead to be in places of importance. 


Friday: Miracles upon miracles...Our area has been slow due to the lack of time we have to work in it but I've felt pretty determined to get it going because teaching is my favorite thing to do. At interviews with President this week he challenged me to prayerful go through my area book and contact as many people as I could. We cleared our schedule for that night and contacted a lot of people, almost the whole areabook. In the process we found a few people who are interested in having lessons! Yay! We also were told by some other sisters for a fun lesson call the Jones family. To our surprised there were 6 sets of Jones in our ward! We had no idea which ones to contact so we said a prayer. We both felt guided to a Sharon Jones. She sounded surprised when we called but scheduled a visit anyways. Later in the week when we visited her she told us we had been lead to her. She is the sweetest most brittle 82 years old and very quickly opened up to us. She has been struggling with being alone and her depression. After a few minutes of talking we found out she has been inactive and attending another church for years. Her husband, daughter and son have all passed away within a couple years of each other. She shared with us many questions, concerns and doubts that she has had that have made her turn away from the church. We were able to help her feel at more at peace with the losses she has had in her life. For some reason I felt very connected to her. When she opened up the door she seemed so familiar to me. It's like I had already met her. She wants to meet weekly to go over the lessons! She doesn't remember or understand much about the church but has a desire to improve the circumstances of her life! I seriously love this lady after only meeting her once. I think God knew she needed us but I also believe God knew I needed her. 


Saturday: It didn't rain! Finally! For our morning run we decided to run in the neighborhood instead of the track which we never have done. We ended up meeting a man named Jason sitting on his porch. We were able to talk to him for about 45 minutes about our faith and he shared his. He was emotional due to the things going on in his life. He was appreciative that we took the time to listen to him. Again, God is always leading us to places of importance when we pray to have experiences and then have faith! For dinner we went to a sweet old women's house for dinner who is from Peru! We ate yummy yummy food and were able to hear many of her experiences. After dinner we went to a park and did some social media work. I sure did swing on the swings and if I'm being honest it felt good to bring out my inner child:)


Sunday: Consisted of lots of meetings and trainings for new missionaries! We drove out to the middle of nowhere to find this memebers house. On the menu was chips, crackers, pretzels, Cole slaw, egg salad. Quite the mix if you ask me! My intolerance to eggs lead me to a peanut butter sandwich! The food was a little weird but the view of the valley, sitting in a hammock on the porch and the company made up for it;) 


Today we went running ar Pre's Trail after Steven Prefontaine! Its next to the U of O stadium. We saw the track team running this morning too! Kinda cool! 


SPIRITUAL:
This week I've been thinking a lot about the talk Gary E. Stevenson gave at conference' "Love, Share, Invite". This talk highlights the importance of member missionary work! In his talk he said, "No name badge or letter is required. No formal calling is needed. As these three things (love, share and invite) become a natural part of who we are and how we live, they will become an automatic, unforced expression of genuine love.... As we love, share, and invite, we take part in that great and glorious work that prepares the earth for the return of its Messiah." Missionary work is an essential and very important work that each and everyone of us is able to be apart of. Gathering Israel is thr most important work we can be doing here. Imagine yourself as one of the lost sheep...would you want someone to seek you out and show you the way. This week I want to challenge everyone to read this talk and prayerfully decide how they can be a missionary this week! Whether that be big or small I know the Lord will bless you and magnify your efforts as you strive to fulfill this covenant of gathering Israel. 


I love yall so very much! I am beyond grateful for all the support and love from each of you! Keep doing great thing and remember how much the Lord loves you. Peace out boys and girls.


♡Sister Parry 

 
- Me and my bestie 
- Mary, a sweet lady I taught in Coos Bay, framed the picture of The Plan of Salvation that I drew for her! Seriously precious! 
- Pre's Trail!
- Peace
- Swinging - my inner child 
- The cutest Sisters!
- Preparing Passover 
- Passover meal
- Always rep the Y! 








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