Transfers, MLC, and Kim!

Hello everyone! 

So transfer calls came this week! Sister Mizelle and I get to stay together and I will be her last companion before she goes home. Our area is getting split this transfer though so we will just be covering Georgetown and Bennington, not Montpelier anymore. It was kind of sad because we had to say goodbye to everyone we were teaching in Montpelier this week. Even though we aren't going far we won't be able to teach half of our people anymore! But I am sure the new elders coming in will be awesome! 

We also had Mission Leadership Council again this week and it was SO GOOD! The spirit was so strong. I was so emotional that day just looking around at all of these other missionaries I have come to love so much. I got to see several of my previous companions (Sisters Tenney, Dominguez, Gilbert, and Bueno) and other missionaries that I've served around before. It is those meeting with other missionaries that gives me strength and helps me remember that Sister Mizelle and I are not alone in this work! 

Much was talked about during our meeting but the biggest message I received was about love. Several missionaries talked about the importance of love and compassion and selflessness and I felt the Spirit gently urging me to further develop these qualities. I've come a long way since the beginning of my mission but I still have so much more of myself that I can give to the Lord and to the people I serve. 

Kim is still on track for being baptized on Saturday! She has struggled to quit smoking but she hasn't smoked in about a week and a half! We are going to talk to her tonight about how she can keep it up for the rest of her life! 

Watching Kim make these changes has once again strengthened my testimony of the power of the Atonement of Christ. Whether we are repenting for large scale sins or the everyday mistakes we make, the Atonement works. It cleanses and sanctifies us as we utilize it. 

Well I love you all!

Until next time,

Sister Park

*We had to say some goodbyes this week to people in Montpelier that we teach so we took pictures with them! 

The first is Maura

Then Meadow, Sophie and Chloe

Annnddd Luke :)

Another Week in the Field

Hey everyone! 

This week has been great! All of the people we are teaching are doing awesome! 

Kim is still preparing for her baptism on September 3rd. We had a great lesson with her about the priesthood with the Bishop and afterwards he gave her a blessing. In the blessing, he said things that Kim really needed to hear and after the blessing she was just beaming with tears running down her face. 

The day of that lesson was also the two week mark before her baptism which meant that she needed to quit smoking by that date (investigators must be keeping all the commandments and fully repent before they can be baptized). When we asked her how quitting was going, she looked kind of distressed and admitted that she was still smoking occasionally. We reminded her that she needed to stay clean from smoking at least two weeks before her baptism and we asked if she wanted to move back her date. She thought about it for a second, and then responded that she would quit that night so she can still be baptized on her scheduled day. Kim seriously has so much faith and knows she can do anything with the Lord's help. She asked us to pray for her and committed that she would be done smoking for good! 

Bonnie's lesson was awesome last night too. We took her on a tour of the church building and talked a lot about baptism and the sacrament. Baptism is definitely something Bonnie is considering, but she doesn't want to be rushed. She is struggling to know how God will answer her prayers but I think that understanding will come with time. 

We are still trying to find more people to teach, especially in Georgetown and Bennington since our area is being split and we won't be in Montpelier at all in a few weeks (there are Elders coming in to take half of our stake from us). Most of our work right now is in Montpelier so we are going to have to do some serious work to find more people in the other two towns. 

We are inviting everyone to the Temple open house in Star Valley. It will be such a great opportunity to show those who aren't members of the church what the inside of a Mormon temple looks like and the spirit they can feel there. 

Well I love you all and hope you have a great week! 

Until next time,

Sister Park

P.S. I forgot my camera today so you'll have to wait until next week for pictures :)

Baptisms and Bonnie

Hello!

Great week this week! As always :)

First of all and most importantly, Areiona, Jeannie, and Felicia were baptized! Their baptism went really well! It was a pretty small turnout but everyone that A, F, and J really wanted to be there was. They definitely all have a long way to go in terms of understanding the gospel completely but they are on the right path! They have taught me that knowing all the answers isn't a prerequisite for baptism. All that is needed is a humble heart and faith to follow the Savior. 

We also had an awesome lesson last night with a new investigator named Bonnie. She moved here in April from Afton, Wyoming and became pretty close with her next door neighbors who are members of the church. They invited her over to their home for a lesson last night and it was awesome! We taught the message of the Restoration and she just kept telling us that she didn't know how to know if it was true! That is like the best question we can get as missionaries. We explained that if she wanted to know spiritual truth she had to go directly to the source of all truth and ask God. She isn't quite sure how she will receive her answer but we plan to help her recognize the spirit as we continue to teach her. 

Well I love you all! Hope you have a fantastic week! 

Until next time,

Sister Park

Blessed Art Thou, Sister Park

Hello family and friends! 

Things are pretty good here in Montpelier! 

Jeannie, Felicia, and Aeriona are doing great! We went over the baptismal interview questions with them yesterday and they are so ready to make this commitment. Their baptism will be on Saturday and we can't wait! We were talking briefly with one of the sisters in J, F, and A's ward who happens to be their neighbor and came to our lesson with them last night. She talked to us about how much J, F, and A have changed since they started meeting with missionaries. When she first met them, none of them were interested in the church, especially Jeannie and Aeriona. She remembers them telling her that they believed all religions were good and that they didn't need to join one specific church. And now look at them! They have become so converted to the gospel and they know how important this step is for them. 

Right now we are just trying to find more investigators! After A, F, and J's baptism, our teaching pool will shrink dramatically so we will be focusing a lot on finding new investigators this week.

We also got to go on exchanges this week which was super fun. I went to Soda Springs with Sister Jarvis and we were on bikes! It was so fun! It was hard to keep my skirt down and we did get rained on a little bit but it was still a lot of fun! 

We had our zone training meeting this week which was really good too. Sister Mizelle and I gave a training on having faith, trusting the Lord, and noticing the tender mercies that He sends. It was fun to see all of the sisters that we cover too! We cover 4 sets of sisters which is more than I've ever covered before so its kind of crazy with exchanges and stuff! 

The past couple weeks have been great (any weeks on a mission are) but I've been feeling a little bit inadequate and I've been missing Pocatello a lot too recently. A couple days ago during my studies in the morning, I came across a couple verses that brought me a lot of peace. They are found in Helaman chapter 10. Nephi is sort of feeling a little bit like I have been. He is yearning for the past (Hel. 7:7-9) and feeling sorrow for the people in his "area" (Hel. 7:6). He is pondering on these things and the Lord speaks to him and says: 

4 Blessed art thou, Nephi, for those things which thou hast done; for I have beheld how thou hast with unwearyingness declared the word, which I have given unto thee, unto this people. And thou hast not feared them, and hast not sought thine own life, but hast sought my will, and to keep my commandments.

 5 And now, because thou hast done this with such unwearyingness, behold, I will bless thee forever; and I will make thee mighty in word and in deed, in faith and in works; yea, even that all things shall be done unto thee according to thy word, for thou shalt not ask that which is contrary to my will.

I felt like these scriptures were meant for me! The Lord knows that I am trying to be my best and he has promised that blessings will come. 

I love the scriptures so much! They can answer prayers and questions, provide comfort, and be the anchor in this crazy world we live in!  

I love you all and hope you have a fantastic week. 

Until next time,

Sister Park

*This is Soda Springs! Right after Zone Training.

Miracles in Montpelier

Hi everyone! I hope you are all enjoying your summer and not getting too hot!

This week was AMAZING! 

I have learned so much from Sister Mizelle! She is such a great missionary and has a passion and fire for sharing the gospel even though she is getting so close to going home. She exemplifies what I want to be like my last two months! 

Montpelier is such a great area! I expected it to be kind of slow because its not that big of a town and there is a pretty high LDS population. But I was wrong! We have so much good work going on here! We have a baptism coming up in about 2 weeks with Aeriona, Felicia, and Jeannie which I am super excited for. Jeannie is the mom and Aeriona and Felicia are her two daughters that are in their 20s. Please keep Jeannie in your prayers! She has such a strong testimony and knows she needs to be baptized but she struggles with smoking and she had to completely quit yesterday if she wants to be baptized in 2 weeks. So she will need a lot of strength to keep it up this week! 

Also a miracle happened this week! So we teach this lady named Kim who has been taught by missionaries for like 2 years now and has never really kept commitments and has never really progressed very much. But we taught her a super powerful Restoration lesson this week (it wasn't because of us; it was all the Spirit's doing) and she felt it! We went back for our next lesson and she had read the pamphlet we gave her twice, read the first three chapters of the Book of Mormon, and announced that she wanted to get baptized! You can imagine our surprise! She said that she had been praying about baptism for the past 2 years and she finally got an answer. She is supposed to do it! So her date is set for September 3rd and we are so excited! If that's not cool enough, her husband, who has been less active in the church since he was a teenager is going to baptize her! They are so great and I love them so much! 

In other news, we had our mission leadership meeting on Friday and it was AWESOME!! I learned so much and I feel so motivated to go out and work hard! We had a great training by a couple of elders who talked about giving our all and "leaving it all out on the field". They based their training on this awesome Mormon Message with these sports kids talking about gaining spiritual strength and endurance and the elders related it to working hard and staying motivated on our missions. I felt like that was exactly what I needed to hear. I have been feeling slightly burn out the last couple weeks and now I just feel ready to go and teach the world! It was a great meeting! 

It was also really fun seeing some of my old companions and people from my MTC district. It was crazy because the meeting was on July 29th: the year anniversary of all of us arriving at the MTC. So crazy to think how much we have all changed and learned in this very short time span. 

I love teaching people about the gospel. Every time I teach a lesson I am able to learn something new and have my testimony strengthened. This quote by Thomas S. Monson is so true: “Regarding one’s testimony, remember, that which one willingly shares he keeps, while that which he selfishly keeps he loses." Our testimonies grow as we share them! 

I love you all so much! Thanks for your love and support! 

Until next time,

Sister Park

*One year ago, Sister Tenney and I met as brand new, scared little missionaries! 

                                                                                                      *Cutest puppies in the world! 

*We went raspberry picking today!