I am behind on the letters from Mikayla. But I wanted to especially share the one about the Earthquake. I just want to thank all of you that kept Mikayla and our family in your thoughts and prayers. It was a very nervous time for us. I am so grateful that she is ok. I have been correcting Mikayla's punctuation before I post these letters. But I'm not going to do that anymore. It makes me laugh every time I see them. I can almost hear her speaking trying to get everything out so fast. You know how she is. So I am leaving these letters the way I get them.
You will see a part in the second letter that she said was just for me. But I decided to share it because it is so sweet and so Mikayla. I know she was really scared but I love how her testimony shines through her fear. So I wanted you all to be able to read about it. I know you love her almost as much as I do :)
Letter from April 11th
Hello my sweet mother,
THis week we traveled a bum load. we went to Guayaquil again for a meeting. it was a surprise. we left on wednesday at 4 and didnt get back until 9:30 the next day.I got to see my mom hermana pugh- she is doing so good and she loves me so much hahaha. also i had to get another flu shot too. i literally think i was the bravest one there. all the elders in my zone were being the biggest babies about it and it was hilarious. speaking of my zone, we are getting zone shirts because we completed our monthly goal for March. AHHH it was so great. in the zone we had 8 baptisms and 12 rescues. we were so stoked. im still so stoked. STOKED.
This week is the last week of the transfer. it was an 8 week transfer. im not completly sure why but ive heard its because they changed something in the mtc or because we are getting a new president i have no idea hahaha. But, so this is the last wee of this transfer and im flipping out. i do not want to leave jipijapa. im gonna cry. i still dont completely feel like its my time to go.... but i dont want to get my hopes up so im telling myself that the worst is going to happen and that im gonna get transfered. we will see. i just dont want to leave my families.... the tumbaco fam... the quiroz fam... and now we have a new fam that we just rescued yesterday. The familia Suavita Abad. its this young couple and their daughter michelle. shes my best friend. shes 7. but shes sassy just like me and i love her. David the dad is from columbia and we both hate talking to each other because i cant understand his accent and he cant understand me and its hilarious hahahahahaha. Carolina the mom reminds me of stacy so naturally i love her. theyve literally become like family in just a month and i think its amazing how that happens. they are so freaking awsome. they were ward missionaries in columbia and they are gonna be awesome for jipijapa. and so now i have this other family on my list of all these people i love with my whole heart and soul that i have to think about leaving. imagine my pain. i trust the Lord. i trust that he knows where i need to go. its all gonna be good. but i would be lying if i said i wouldnt be sad to leave jipijapa.
I LOVE YOU WITH MY WHOLE HEART.
i miss our fam so much.
Letter from April 18th-Monday after the Earthquake
Mama,
wooooooooo It has been a wild past couple of days let me tell you. I am SO happy to hear from you and dad and everybody. Thank you so so so so much for all the prayers. Im just going to start from the beginning so you know everything that happened.
On saturday we planned to have an activity at the church where we were going to play sports with everybody. We had like 60 people at the church it was awesome. And we had just finished a soccer game when it started raining. but it didnt bother anybody hahah. About fifteen minutes later our President yelled ´´Temblor!´´ which means tremor. I didnt realize what was happening until there was this big white flash of light in the sky and then all the lights went out and it was just dark dark dark. then i could feel the earth moving and everything. i grabbed my companion, grabbed about 7 kids and we got to the middle of the court by the church and just huddled there and waited for what felt like forever i swear. it was so long. I felt like i was surfing. but i didnt like it this time. lol surf joke. anyways so everybody was freaking out and crying and we sent kids in groups running to their houses and yeah. long story short. the epicenter of the earthquake was about 6 or 7 hours from us more or less in a part called Esmeraldas. it was a 7.8 earthquake there. From what i have heard we felt about a 6.5 earthquake in Jipijapa. In the past two days the power has been on and off, we have slept in the church with some members because its safer, theres been 250 something after shocks. ive only felt like 6 or 7. It is true all the missionaries are safe, some of the other areas arent doin so hot though. TONS of water and food and clothes and things are being gathered here in Jipijapa and way more in other cities to take to the cities where its super bad. a lot of buildings have collapsed- not here but where other missionaries are. we really have seen a miracle here in Jipijapa and really in the mission. We are safe. we are all okay. all we are doing now is praying A LOT and visiting everybody and praying with each family. But we know that Everything is going to be okay. The branch has been super supportive of us in the pást couple days. For those of you that are praying lots and lots please pray for Esmeraldas, Pedernales, and Manta. these are the three cities that have seen the absolute worst of it.
I dont have much else to say for this week because i cant really remember anything else that happened hahaha. Our transfers were postponed for this sunday. so i have one more week in jipijapa. i think it might be my time to go. but i still dont know obviously. i trust that ill be where im needed.
Now this is just for you okay? saturday night was hard. it was very very hard. i kept it together really well. i only cried for five minutes after we had settled down in our church bench beds. i was just scared. my first big earthquake you know. and they kept telling us to be prepared for a bigger earthquake so i was stresssing out about that. really all i wanted to do was hug you and dad. i was praying a lot a lot a lot. Im doing a lot better now. but yes i was scared. i think i was mostly just in shock. and then the next day in every house we went to we saw the news of all the ciites where its so much worse and i just cant imagine what that would ahve been like. collapsing buildings and houses. ugh. i know that the lord has been preparing me to be here. he has got me here for a reason. im just going to forget myself and focus on them. i know everythingis going to be okay. dont worry about me, worry about those cities. its awful there.
I love you so much! Thank you again for the prayers and the love and everything!
Hermana Parker
Thank you again for your prayers,
Letter from April 11th
Hello my sweet mother,
THis week we traveled a bum load. we went to Guayaquil again for a meeting. it was a surprise. we left on wednesday at 4 and didnt get back until 9:30 the next day.I got to see my mom hermana pugh- she is doing so good and she loves me so much hahaha. also i had to get another flu shot too. i literally think i was the bravest one there. all the elders in my zone were being the biggest babies about it and it was hilarious. speaking of my zone, we are getting zone shirts because we completed our monthly goal for March. AHHH it was so great. in the zone we had 8 baptisms and 12 rescues. we were so stoked. im still so stoked. STOKED.
This week is the last week of the transfer. it was an 8 week transfer. im not completly sure why but ive heard its because they changed something in the mtc or because we are getting a new president i have no idea hahaha. But, so this is the last wee of this transfer and im flipping out. i do not want to leave jipijapa. im gonna cry. i still dont completely feel like its my time to go.... but i dont want to get my hopes up so im telling myself that the worst is going to happen and that im gonna get transfered. we will see. i just dont want to leave my families.... the tumbaco fam... the quiroz fam... and now we have a new fam that we just rescued yesterday. The familia Suavita Abad. its this young couple and their daughter michelle. shes my best friend. shes 7. but shes sassy just like me and i love her. David the dad is from columbia and we both hate talking to each other because i cant understand his accent and he cant understand me and its hilarious hahahahahaha. Carolina the mom reminds me of stacy so naturally i love her. theyve literally become like family in just a month and i think its amazing how that happens. they are so freaking awsome. they were ward missionaries in columbia and they are gonna be awesome for jipijapa. and so now i have this other family on my list of all these people i love with my whole heart and soul that i have to think about leaving. imagine my pain. i trust the Lord. i trust that he knows where i need to go. its all gonna be good. but i would be lying if i said i wouldnt be sad to leave jipijapa.
I LOVE YOU WITH MY WHOLE HEART.
i miss our fam so much.
Letter from April 18th-Monday after the Earthquake
Mama,
wooooooooo It has been a wild past couple of days let me tell you. I am SO happy to hear from you and dad and everybody. Thank you so so so so much for all the prayers. Im just going to start from the beginning so you know everything that happened.
On saturday we planned to have an activity at the church where we were going to play sports with everybody. We had like 60 people at the church it was awesome. And we had just finished a soccer game when it started raining. but it didnt bother anybody hahah. About fifteen minutes later our President yelled ´´Temblor!´´ which means tremor. I didnt realize what was happening until there was this big white flash of light in the sky and then all the lights went out and it was just dark dark dark. then i could feel the earth moving and everything. i grabbed my companion, grabbed about 7 kids and we got to the middle of the court by the church and just huddled there and waited for what felt like forever i swear. it was so long. I felt like i was surfing. but i didnt like it this time. lol surf joke. anyways so everybody was freaking out and crying and we sent kids in groups running to their houses and yeah. long story short. the epicenter of the earthquake was about 6 or 7 hours from us more or less in a part called Esmeraldas. it was a 7.8 earthquake there. From what i have heard we felt about a 6.5 earthquake in Jipijapa. In the past two days the power has been on and off, we have slept in the church with some members because its safer, theres been 250 something after shocks. ive only felt like 6 or 7. It is true all the missionaries are safe, some of the other areas arent doin so hot though. TONS of water and food and clothes and things are being gathered here in Jipijapa and way more in other cities to take to the cities where its super bad. a lot of buildings have collapsed- not here but where other missionaries are. we really have seen a miracle here in Jipijapa and really in the mission. We are safe. we are all okay. all we are doing now is praying A LOT and visiting everybody and praying with each family. But we know that Everything is going to be okay. The branch has been super supportive of us in the pást couple days. For those of you that are praying lots and lots please pray for Esmeraldas, Pedernales, and Manta. these are the three cities that have seen the absolute worst of it.
I dont have much else to say for this week because i cant really remember anything else that happened hahaha. Our transfers were postponed for this sunday. so i have one more week in jipijapa. i think it might be my time to go. but i still dont know obviously. i trust that ill be where im needed.
Now this is just for you okay? saturday night was hard. it was very very hard. i kept it together really well. i only cried for five minutes after we had settled down in our church bench beds. i was just scared. my first big earthquake you know. and they kept telling us to be prepared for a bigger earthquake so i was stresssing out about that. really all i wanted to do was hug you and dad. i was praying a lot a lot a lot. Im doing a lot better now. but yes i was scared. i think i was mostly just in shock. and then the next day in every house we went to we saw the news of all the ciites where its so much worse and i just cant imagine what that would ahve been like. collapsing buildings and houses. ugh. i know that the lord has been preparing me to be here. he has got me here for a reason. im just going to forget myself and focus on them. i know everythingis going to be okay. dont worry about me, worry about those cities. its awful there.
I love you so much! Thank you again for the prayers and the love and everything!
Hermana Parker
