The Lord Began to Bless Them

Hello! Hope you all had a fabulous week and are having a great summer! 

Our week was awesome! 

To start: We set a baptismal date with Rian!! It was crazy! So we had a lesson with Rian on Wednesday and she asked if she could have a friend come. Of course we said yes and her friend Jenny came to the lesson. Jenny is a convert of a couple years and an old friend of Rian's. They hadn't seen each other in years and Jenny just felt like she needed to text Rian and hang out with her while she was in town. So they hung out and Jenny talked to her about her conversion story and they talked a lot about baptism. Then, we came and taught the lesson "The Gospel of Jesus Christ" which is about baptism and faith and the gift of the Holy Ghost and it was all perfect! 

After the lesson we asked Rian if she has thought any more about baptism. She looked at us for a second and then just started sobbing. She buried her face in her arm for like a minute (the longest minute of my life) and then she lifted her head, looked me right in the eye and said, "I want to be baptized". Sister D and I were speechless for a minute but then we composed ourselves and finished teaching. We asked her to pray about what day she should be baptized.

Sister Dominguez and I also prayed about a date and we felt that July 16th was the right day! So then on Saturday we set the date! We asked Rian if she decided what day she wanted to be baptized and she said she had been praying about it but hadn't gotten an answer. Then she asked us if we had prayed about a date and we told her we had. When we said July 16, Rian broke down again and told us that that date had been running through her mind all day. We knew it must have been inspired! 

So July 16th is going to be a great day! 

We also found quite a few promising new investigators this week! After about 2 weeks of knocking on empty doors and talking to not interested people we have finally seen success. It's interesting because right now I am in Alma in the Book of Mormon and I am amazed at how similar our experience has been to Aaron's in Alma 21. Aaron was trying to teach the Amalikites and the people of Middoni and wasn't having any success. In fact, he and his brethren were cast into prison. But they never gave up. They kept persevering and trusting in the Lord and finally, "The Lord began to bless them, insomuch that they brought many to a knowledge of the truth" (v. 17). We have literally seen this happen in our missionary efforts. As we were patient and happy and submitted to God's will, He has blessed us with success! 

I love this gospel! I'm grateful for answered prayers! 

Love you all! 

Until next time,

Sister Park 

Transfers, conferences, and Yellowstone!!‏

Hello! 

Sorry for not being able to email last week! We are allowed to take a trip to Yellowstone one time on our missions and Sister Gilbert and I decided to go last Monday so we didn't have time to write.

Yellowstone was... fuuuun... sorta. Haha I didn't realize how much driving it would be! I probably could have driven home to Arizona in the the time we spent in car on Monday. It was 3.5 hours there and then we had to drive to the sights which took like 45 minutes to get to each one. We only had time to see two things: Mammoth Hot Springs and Old Faithful which were both cool but probably not worth the time we spent in our car.. We went up with Lindsey, Nathan and Rian though and we all got to know each other REAL well after spending 12 hours in a very confined area! 

In other news, Sister Gilbert got transferred to Arimo, ID and my new companion is Sister Dominguez! I love her so much already! She is from North Carolina but her parents are both from El Salvador. She has been on her mission for 16 months and goes home in August so I hope to be her last companion! She's also a Spanish-called sister but she got switched to English work for the last couple months of her mission. She was baptized 7 years ago and has a very strong testimony of the gospel. She has already taught me so much and I'm excited to serve with her! 

Kelvin and Payne are doing okay. Payne's mom died this week so he flew home to Keyna and he'll be there for a couple weeks. Kelvin hasn't come to church again since his first time but he is still reading the Book of Mormon and has finished 1 Nephi! 

We are still teaching Rian and she is doing great! She has such a sincere desire to know the truth but she struggles to remember to read the scriptures and pray. She's awesome though and I feel such a connection with her. We have similar personalities and I think we will be great friends whether or not she decides to get baptized. 

We also had a mission conference with Elder D. Todd Christofferson of the Quorum of the Twelve on Saturday and it was so good! We did a big question and answer session with him and it was so great! I learned so much and received a lot of revelation for questions that I have had but probably the most important revelation was simply the confirmation that Elder Christofferson is truly an Apostle of the Lord. 

I love my mission so much! I grow and learn and become better everyday in a way that I couldn't do otherwise. 

I love you all! 

Until next time,

Sister Park