G-Town is Poppin'

We had a great week this past week! Hopefully y'all all enjoyed thanksgiving and ate a ton! I know I did! 

Thanksgiving was so fun! We spent most of the day helping a family we are teaching cook and then we ate with them. That was at 4. Then at 5 we had ANOTHER dinner with another family we are teaching. Some words of advice: give yourself at least two hours before eating a second Thanksgiving dinner. We were so full! Then we spent the rest of the night hanging out with one of our ward mission leaders, his family, and the sisters that just got transferred into Paris (Sister Fielding and my home girl Sister Tenney!!). It was a lot of fun and made me think about how grateful I really am to be serving here with so many amazing members, investigators, and other missionaries. 

We saw so many miracles this week it was crazy! So I was starting to think that we had contacted all or most of the non-members in our area but this week we found two new, promising investigators and we got referrals for a couple more that we haven't contacted yet. The Lord is blessing us so much. Our first new investigator is Kevin. He used to meet with missionaries years ago and believes everything about the church but just hasn't been baptized! So we gave him a Book of Mormon and we will meet with him on Wednesday. Our other new investigator is a lady named Vivian. Sister Reupena kept feeling inspired that we needed to go knock on her door so we did and she invited us in and told us about her son who had recently committed suicide. We talked to her about the Plan of Salvation and the Book of Mormon and we will be seeing her Wednesday as well!

We also had Rorie and Brylee's baptism this week! It was so good! They had a couple family members speak and then their uncle baptized them. Then they were confirmed on Sunday. We were so proud of them and excited for this step they've taken in their lives. 

So things are pretty good here in G-town! You can feel the Christmas spirit for sure and hopefully that will soften some hearts and make it a little easier on us :)

Love yall so much! Have a great week! 

Until next time,

Sister Park

Baptism pics! 

Do Good and Go!

Hello fam and friends! 

We had a really good week this week! We had some good lessons and our investigators are progressing! 

Rorie and her sister Brylee are so excited for their baptism! They have been reading the scriptures with their mom and are coming to church! Their family has never been active in church and they are now really really changing their lives. 

Elaine is praying about a baptismal date this week so please keep her in your prayers! 

We had Stake Conference yesterday and it was so awesome. Kim B. Clark of the Seventy spoke and I seriously love that man. It was the second time I heard him speak (the first was at a YSA fireside in Pocatello) and it was awesome! The theme of his talk was "be good and go". He said those are the two ways we can remain close to Heavenly Father. First by being good (a.k.a. keeping the commandments and our covenants, being obedient, doing the right thing) and secondly by going (a.k.a. acting on God's will, going to the temple or church, fulfilling callings, etc). It was so awesome for me to just break down everything we are asked to do as Latter Day Saints into these two categories. Just be good and go! Its that simple! 

He also talked about being on the front lines in the battle for righteousness. He told us that is where Christ is working so if we want to help Christ we will be out on the frontier with Him instead of falling into complacency. This was exactly the wake up call I needed! Lately it seems like I've been just living the missionary life and doing everything I'm supposed to do (getting up on time, studying, going out to talk to people, teaching lessons, blah blah blah) but I am lacking that sense of urgency in God's work. So this week that is my goal: be on the front lines. 

I am so grateful for the inspired (and inspiring) leaders we have in this church. The Lord really can work through other people to answer our prayers and give us messages he wants us to know. I know that this is His work and I am honored to be a part of it. 

I love you all and thank you again for your prayers and support and love!

Until next time,

Sister Park

Hello fam and friends! 

Thank you all so much for the packages you sent this week! (Shout out to Chad and Christy, Heath and Jimena, Grandma and Grandpa Park, and my awesome mom). I am a very lucky missionary to have such a supportive family. 

This week was so amazing! We found new investigators, taught a lot of lessons, and had so many people come to church yesterday! 

Bonnie didn't receive a clear answer this week about baptism so that was a little disappointing. She did read a lot from the Book of Mormon this week and she is still progressing, even if its slower than we would like :)

Rorie is doing great! We moved her date back to November 25th so she can have some more time to finish the lessons and be completely prepared. 

Elaine is doing really well! Her daughter, Rhonda, who got baptized a little over a year ago was in town from Malad this week and she was able to be there for one of our lessons and share her testimony with her mom. Testimony is always so much more powerful when it comes from a loved one and not just the missionaries. We also watched The Restoration movie with Elaine and she really liked it. She seriously acts and believes just like a member but she just is nervous about being baptized. She is praying about baptism though and we hope to set a date with her this week.

I want more than anything to stay in this area for another transfer so I can continue helping these people progress and hopefully get to watch them enter the waters of baptism. There is nothing more rewarding than watching someone you love enter into a covenant with their Heavenly Father. 

Although being a part of someone's baptism is an amazing part of missionary work, seeing less active or in-active members of the church gain conversion and come back to the fold is also pretty miraculous. We do a lot of less active work here since 90% of the population of Georgetown are baptized members. We had so many of these less active members come to church yesterday!! It was so awesome! Some of them haven't been in 10-15 years. 

One of my favorite returning members we teach is a girl named Mallory. Mallory is in her late 20s and has two young kids. She was raised in the church, but in high school she strayed from the path when she started hanging out with the wrong crowd. We met her about 3 weeks ago and she invited us in and basically poured her heart out to us about some struggles she had been going through and how she knew she needed to get back to church. We shared a powerful message with her about God's love and having courage in adversity and it was one of the most spirit-filled lessons I've had on my mission.

Then yesterday at church she shared her testimony in gospel principles class and Sister Reupena and I were both bawling. She said that she had been struggling so much and we came to her at just the right time. She said that she had never felt the spirit as strongly as she did when we shared the message with her that night. She committed that very night that she would never let herself get so far from God ever again. She is doing so great now and has been reading the scriptures and praying with her kids every night and plans to come to church every week from here on out. Sometimes all people need is a chance to feel the spirit and to feel God's love for them and they will come running back to the gospel fold.

After hearing Mallory's experience, and thinking about the role I play in God's work, this scripture in Alma came to my mind,

11 But Ammon said unto him: I do not boast in my own strength, nor in my own wisdom; but behold, my joy is full, yea, my heart is brim with joy, and I will rejoice in my God.

 12 Yea, I know that I am nothing; as to my strength I am weak; therefore I will not boast of myself, but I will boast of my God, for in his strength I can do all things; yea,behold, many mighty miracles we have wrought in this land, for which we will praise his name forever.

 13 Behold, how many thousands of our brethren has he loosed from the pains of hell; and they are brought to sing redeeming love, and this because of the power of his word which is in us, therefore have we not great reason to rejoice?

 14 Yea, we have reason to praise him forever, for he is the Most High God, and has loosed our brethren from the chains of hell.

 15 Yea, they were encircled about with everlasting darkness and destruction; but behold, he has brought them into his everlasting light, yea, into everlasting salvation; and they are encircled about with the matchless bounty of his love; yea, and we have been instruments in his hands of doing this great and marvelous work.

I am so grateful that I am able to be an instrument in God's hands to help others. I can truly say, just as Ammon did, that my joy is full. 

I love you all so much! Have a great week and always remember the hand that God plays in your lives! 

Until next time,

Sister Park

This is Brother and Sister Hartley, the people who the movie, "Cokeville Miracle" is based on. They came and did a question and answer session with us on Halloween after we watched the movie.