Third email

Another email from Parrin! :)

Hello everyone!

Sorry I haven't written you all in a while. It has been such a wonderful two weeks. We have been prepping for two baptisms :) We had one for two wards combined yesterday. It was actually for a part-member family- a grandfather and his two granddaughters. It was so sweet seeing a family come together to get baptized :) I saw the joy on the family members' faces and their gratitude for them being baptized. The grandfather- Frank- had a stroke, so he was baptized in his wheel chair. Because he is so tall, he needed five men altogether to help him get baptized. Seeing all these men in the font was amazing and the fact that they were helping him was just such a tender moment.

The other baptism we had was for Kassidy, who is a teenager. She was so willing to follow the commandments and get baptized. I thought about people like her and Frank and how they are so willing to do what Heavenly father wants. And what He really wants is to bless us and for us to be happy. There is a scripture in D&C18:10 that says, "Remember the worth of souls is great in the sight of God." And they really are. Heavenly father along with us have so much joy when we help them enter into the waters of baptism and immerse themselves in that joy that no other form of happiness can provide. True happiness comes form the Gospel of Jesus Christ. It really does. When we are obedient, we are doing what the Father asks of us but are also partaking of that delicious fruit that Lehi describes in his vision. The Gospel is that fruit, that sweetness and joy that come from it.

Our theme for Christmas this year is the Gospel is sweet. We want to share Lehi's vision in a skit for the Christmas program this year, so we are pretty excited for that.

Virginia is such an amazing area. It is the Bible belt of the nation. I have learned so much from the culture here. It is so different from California but the work here has spread so much. I am enjoying meeting new people and learning about who they are. There is never a dull moment :)

I hope you all are doing well :) Love you all!

Sister Habibpour

Hello! (third email)

 

Hello everyone! Just wanted to say hi and let you know how everything is going in Virginia. We have two baptisms coming up in the month of November, which is exiting. Yesterday, we had some of our less-actives come to church and see us singing "As Sisters in Zion", so that was a real treat. Yesterday we were tracting. I ran up to this one house. Before I did that though, I got this feeling, "What if we ran into someone from church?" Well, we finally got to that one door and a woman from our ward opened it. I said hi to her. She said her brother lived there and he was a non-member. We started talking to her at first. He later came into the room and we started talking to him. Sister Tuckett than said some things about our church. He said had problem with fasting and we tried to explain to him that that was okay if he couldn't fast due to medical reasons. (He has epilepsy). I then felt like I should bear my testimony and said, " You know Heavenly Father knows each and every one of us individually and knows what we are going through. He knows our struggles and challenges and He loves us all equally." He agreed to that. He didn't want to take the lessons, but I felt like there was a reason we were there, and I really hope and pray that he can open up his heart to the Gospel. We are going to try and talk with him again.

 

How is everyone doing? I miss all of you and hope all is well. I have to run but will write you again soon.

 

Sister Habibpour

Hello (second email)

Hello Everyone!

Just wanted to say hello and wanted to let you know that I am receiving a temporary reassignment to the West Virginia Charleston Mission! I am very exited for this and am happy to be getting out into the field and starting the work.

Our district has been super busy with learning the language and working with our "investigators", such as Siuza and Maria. I bore my testimony to Siuza in Portuguese about the Plan of Salvation and how she will be able to see her brother again after this life (her brother had passed away) and talked about Christ as Savior to maria and how much He loves her. I am so grateful for the language and to be able to communicate to others about it. The Holy Ghost is strong here. It works in so many ways and it never ceases to amaze me.

I am also exited for today because we will be teaching others in our TRC (Teaching Training Center) meeting tonight in Portuguese. Some of our "investigators" have served missions, so I gained some insight from them about what it will really be like :)

I hope you all are doing well. I send my love to the ward family.

Love,

Sister Habibpour

Contact Info

To mail a letter to Parrin while she is in the MTC you can send your letter to:
Sister Parrin Habibpour 
Oct 7 Bra-Cam 
2009 N 900 E Unit 136 
Provo, UT 84602

And if you don't want to go through the postal service just go to dearelder.com and type up a letter for her and they will print it and send it to her. You will need her unit number, which is 136.

I will update this post as her address changes.

Hello!

 Hi Everyone,

It have been at the MTC for about two-and-a-half weeks so far. We have been working at learning the Portuguese language and talking to "investigators", such as a man named Carlos. We get to learn about their background and really focus on what they need. It has been quite an experience. It's hard at times because I know a lot of Spanish and start speaking it to the investigators or other missionaries. It seems to be a common problem around here lol, but I am getting better at it.

Our district is wonderful. We always have testimony meetings at the end of the day and get to learn about peoples' thoughts and insights from the devotionals. We go to the Marriott Center sometimes to do choir, which is fun. I love the choir director. He is so funny but also a wonderful story teller.

I am supposed to leave on October 7th and am thinking that I might be going stateside since I haven't heard anything about my visa- but you never know. I am supposed to be singing with the other sister missionaries in the General Relief Society Conference, so that will be very exiting :)

I hope everyone is doing well. I send my love!

Best,

Sister Habibpour

Intro

Parrin Habibpour is serving in Brazil. She asked me to keep a blog for her of the letters she sends out, so I will be posting them. Let me warn you - I have NO IDEA how to blog! I'm sure you will be able to tell. Sorry for all the mistakes I'm sure I will make. I hope you can at least read her letters. When I get more information about how to contact her I will post it. Thank you for being patient with me as I figure out how to blog.
-Cheryl Staus