The Good Samaritan

Happy Memorial Day! I hope you all enjoy your time off work or school! 

This week was great! 

We are still teaching Kelvin and Payne. Their progress has slowed a little and neither of them came to church yesterday. We started teaching their other roommate, Ken and he is really cool. They all just want to know the truth so badly! The difficult thing with them (and with most Africans apparently) is that they struggle to commit to things, like coming to church or showing up for appointments. We literally have to call them like 5 times on the day of our lessons to remind them about it.

We also started teaching another new investigator this week named Anit. He's from Nepal and was raised in the Hindu faith. He is very curious about Mormons though! He went to Temple Square in Salt Lake a few months ago and really liked it. He is excited to learn more about what we believe but we aren't sure how interested he is in actually accepting the gospel or praying to know that its true. But hopefully that curiosity will grow into a desire to believe! 

We also had mission leadership council again this week. President spent most of his time talking about how we should be a blessing in the wards where we serve, not a burden. He said we should spend less time worrying about what other people (our bishops, ward mission leaders, other missionaries) are or aren't doing and just go to work ourselves! He showed the Bible video about the good Samaritan that I had never seen before (I'll put the link at the bottom of this email) and I loved it! 

The story of the good Samaritan has been on my mind a lot this week. Instead of wondering why those people in higher authority (the priest and the Levite) didn't do anything, the Samaritan dropped what he was doing and served the Jew who needed help. As I watched the Samaritan's love and concern for his fellow man, my eyes filled with tears. THAT is what this life is all about. Putting other people before ourselves. Being humble. Loving, serving, and blessing others. 

This week I want to invite each of you to do something for someone else. Forget about your own problems and your own to do list and go serve! I promise that you will feel happier and you will be able to get to all the things you have to do. 

I am so grateful for the opportunity I have to give all of my time and attention to serving others and serving God. This is the Lord's work. I know that. 

I love you all so much.

Until next time,

Sister Park

It was the best of times, it was the worst of times

Hi everyone! 

Hope you all are doing well! This week was... pretty okay. This has been one of the tougher weeks since I've been here in Poky but we are staying optimistic and relying on the Lord a lot.

So first hard thing. Our investigator Sarah, who we have been teaching since I got here was scheduled to get baptized yesterday. Sarah has a strong testimony of the gospel and of the Book of Mormon and she knows that she needs to get baptized. But.. she was scared to tell her family. So she waited and waited and waited. Then finally last Sunday she decided to tell them. Lets just say it did not go well. Her parents were angry and unsupportive. Sarah was distraught and doubts flooded her mind. She still was planning to go through with everything though, and she knew that she wanted to. She passed her baptismal interview, we set up the whole program, had her pick out which jumpsuit she wanted, bought refreshments, and everything was ready to go. 

Then we met with Sarah again on Saturday, the day before her scheduled baptism. She was unsure of everything and she did not feel ready to get baptized. As much as we wanted her to, we could also see that she wasn't quite ready to make the commitment. So she has decided to postpone the baptism a couple months. However, its going to be really tough for her to stay on the strait and narrow these next couple months since she is going back home to Caldwell to live with her anti-Mormon family and druggie friends. So we are very worried. She has promised that she will meet with missionaries there and keep going to church but it will be very difficult for her. 

So please keep Sarah in your prayers! 

Other than that, this week has also been a little slower than most. We haven't been able to teach as much as we usually do and spent a lot of time this week knocking on empty doors. 

But... along with the disappointments this week, we have seen a lot of great things happen as well! I'll share two of the best.

1. Kelvin came to church and loved it! He said we would definitely be back next week!

2. We found an awesome new investigator named Rian. She is AWESOME! She also comes from an anti-Mormon family (sounds familiar, huh?) but she really wants to find out if the Book of Mormon and our doctrine is true. She is super open and has a lot of support from friends so we are excited to keep teaching her.

All in all, this week has been pretty good. There have been some low moments, but that is what life is all about right? Having the low moments and growing from them. We can choose to let these moments make us bitter or better. It's up to us.

Hope you all have a great week! 

Love ya! 

Until next time,

Sister Park 

Happiness

Hola familia! 

I hope y'all had a fantastic week! We sure did here in Poky! 

Liam was baptized on Saturday and the service was awesome! He had his girlfriend Kitanna speak and he even bore his testimony at the end which was awesome cause he's a pretty quiet kid! 

We are still teaching Kelvin and Payne and we've met with them like everyday this week! They have so many questions and they literally want to meet everyday for like 5 hours! This is the first time on my mission I've had to tell people we want to meet with them less! Their biggest questions right now are about what happens after death and how baptisms for the dead work. They are awesome though and they are some of my favorite people to teach! They just really want the truth and they are so sincere! 

Something that has really struck me this week is a common thread between all of the converts I've had in this area. What is that you might ask? Simple: they are happier now than before they had the gospel. 

Nathan has talked again and again about how much the gospel has blessed his life. He LOVES the temple and has found so much peace there. 

Reagan is back home for the summer and is going to her ward there and she loves it. Something interesting that Reagan told us was that the minute she received the gift of the Holy Ghost after being confirmed, she felt different. She says that feeling has not left her since. She has felt happiness, peace and purpose. 

Chris came to a lesson with us this week and in the lesson he bore his testimony about the difference the gospel has made in his life. He met with the missionaries for a while and felt good but then decided to stop meeting with them. He felt an immediate difference in his mood. He was unhappy and not able to face his trials very well. So he began reading the scriptures and meeting with missionaries again and just like that, he felt a happiness and peace that had been missing from his life. 

Liam bore a powerful testimony at his baptism as well. None of his family members are very supportive of his decision to get baptized and they all tried to feed him a bunch of anti-Mormon information during his entire teaching process. Liam talked about how difficult it was to face these accusations and maintain a testimony. He said that what he always went back to was how he felt while at church or while reading the scriptures or while meeting with us. He said he cannot deny the happiness that has come into his life.

The restored gospel of Jesus Christ makes us happy. It gives us the lasting peace and assurance that cannot come any other way. As I have struggled with questions and doubts, with trials of faith and fear of the unknown, the happiness I have felt being a member of the church is undeniable. Therefore, this church must be of God. Like the Book of Mormon prophet Moroni says, "I show unto you the way to judge; for every thing which inviteth to do good... is of God". As I have lived my religion to the fullest by serving God and "doing good", I have been happy and I've been able to spread that happiness around. 

I love the gospel so much and I'm grateful for the power it has to change lives. 

I love all of you!

Until next time,

Sister Park

Pictures:

#1, Liam, me, Sis Gilbert, Alex (Ward Mission Leader) 

#2 Kitanna's dad, Liam, Kitanna (Liam's girlfriend), me, and Sister Gilbert

#3 Zone selfie! 

Mission Split

Hello everyone! It sounds like you all had a great week! 

Congrats to Taylor and Olivia!! Your wedding looked beautiful from the pictures I saw! 

Its been a crazy week! We found out some crazy news on Wednesday. Our mission is being split in half. So everything from Firth and south will be the Pocatello mission and Shelley and North will be the Idaho Falls mission. Wherever we are sent for the next transfer will determine which mission we will be in. Kinda crazy! 

We had Mission Leadership Council on Friday and it was really good! We found out a little more info about the mission split and we were taught by President and Sister Hancock and some of the other missionaries. Sister Hancock's training was awesome. She talked about James E. Faust's talk "Come What May and Love it" and about being optimistic even in the darkest of times. I think that has been one of the most important lessons I have learned on my mission. Even when things are hard, there are so many things to be happy about! When we focus on what is good and right in our lives and in the world, we feel so much better! 

We also had Chris' baptism on Saturday and it was awesome! Chris wanted to bear his testimony and share his conversion story after he was baptized. He talked to us about how reading the Book of Mormon and meeting with missionaries has changed his life for the better. It was so inspiring! He is going to be a great missionary! 

We also found some new investigators this week named Kelvin and Payne. They are from Africa and they are awesome! They were both raised Christian and know the Bible very well. Kelvin has friends back in Nigeria who served missions and who are members of the church so he wanted to learn more about the church. They are both so great and I'm excited to teach them more! 

Also I got to Skype with my favorite people yesterday! Talking to my family was so fun and its crazy to see how although my siblings look a little older, not much else has changed :) They still love to tease each other and laugh a lot! 

I love you all so much! Thank you for your support and prayers! 

Until next time,

Sister Park 

Baptisms A Plenty!

Mon. May 2, 2016

Hey! 

How are all of you? This week was another great one! 

First of all, can I just say how much I love serving on a college campus? We are so busy and we get to teach all the time! I feel like I have been so blessed on my mission to serve in all the best areas! 

We have three baptisms scheduled for May right now with some incredible people! The first is this next weekend on the 7th with Chris. Chris is AWESOME!! A couple other missionaries were teaching him before (they were "poaching" him, which means teaching him even though he was in our area) but they decided it would be best to let us teach him. So we started teaching him about 3 weeks ago. He is so solid! He says he wants to serve a mission after his first semester of college! 

Our next date is on the 14th with Liam. Liam is a chemistry major and has been dating an LDS girl nemed Kitanna for about 2 years. He is a super smart guy and has A LOT of questions. Especially about church history and Joseph Smith. He has been having some doubts recently because of the things he has heard about polygamy and race and the priesthood issues. Its been really cool to teach him because I've struggled with a lot of the same questions and I feel like I was specifically in this area so that I could teach and help Liam. 

The last date is with Sarah for the 22nd! Sarah has been a long time coming! She has been meeting with the sisters since the beginning of the year and she has a strong testimony of the Book of Mormon but she has just been too afraid to commit to a date. We decided to fast with her last week and after fasting she said she had a really distinct impression from the Spirit that she needed to be baptized. So she picked the 22nd and we couldn't be more exctied!! 

Good things are happening here! 

One last thing. You all should look up the YSA devotional given by Elder Maynes last night. He talks about the Restoration of the gospel and Joseph's first vision. He bears a powerful testimony of the reality of the Restoration and Joseph Smith's prophetic role in it. It strengthened my testimony a ton and is worthwhile to read or watch whenever you get time. 

I hope you all have a fantastic week! Choose to be happy. Choose to have faith. 

Until next time,

Sister Park

Hi Y'all!

Hi y'all! 

We had the best week! I feel like every week just keeps getting better! 

This weekend was one big Spirit-filled adventure! First of all Reagan was baptized!! Her baptism went so well! Her dad came down from Lewiston, ID to support her. She had two of her best friends give talks on baptism and the Holy Ghost, and another friend baptized her. 

After her baptism as they were closing the doors, Reagan was walking up to her friend Lindsey who was holding her towel and from outside the font we heard both of them cheering and Reagan was crying/laughing because she was just so happy! She was really embarrassed after the baptism when we told her we could hear her haha. 

We also had Elder Richards of the Seventy there at the baptism and he gave her some really good advice and bore a powerful testimony of the truthfulness of the gospel. 

We also had stake conference which is where a bunch of congregations in Pocatello get together and hear from church leaders. It was so awesome!! We also got a new stake presidency so that was exciting. 

We got to hear from the previous stake presidency and their wives and then the new stake presidency and their wives. We also had an area seventy there, Elder Driscoll, and then Elder Richards there of the Seventy who gave great talks as well. I didn't bring my notes with me today or else I would be able to share more of my insights, but really the most powerful part of the meeting for me was just the spirit I felt! I also went into the meeting with a question that I've been wondering about for a while and I was able to get an answer so that was pretty cool. 

I do remember one quote from conference that I loved!! Elder Richards said "Happiness is directly proportional to feeling the Spirit, which is directly proportional to knowing and understanding God's will and acting on it in faith." He explained that most people say that we feel the Spirit more in our lives when we are obedient, but how its not blind obedience that helps us feel the Spirit. We must KNOW and UNDERSTAND God's will and then follow His direction obediently. It is then that we feel the Spirit and are truly happy. It doesn't work like that if we don't understand why God's commandments are in place.

I can testify that being happy (and I mean truly, eternally happy) depends on how connected we are with God. When we know we are choosing the right and are experiencing things that God has planned for us, we will be content, and even joyous! 

I love you all so much and pray for you! Thank you for your support and love! Hope you have a great week! 

Until next time,

Sister Park

 

Pic 1: Elder Richards, Reagan's dad Jeff, Reagan, Sister Gilbert, Me! 

Pic 2: Reagan in her "gettup" (thats what she kept calling her jumpsuit) :)

 Paige's Dad went to elementary school here.

How Great Is My Joy

Hey fam & friends! 

Another amazing week here in Poky! I am so grateful for the experiences I have had so far on my mission. These past 8 months have changed me so much and I've learned that I am a much happier person when I am serving the Lord and forgetting about myself. 

Reagan is still on fire! She just passed me up in reading the Book of Mormon! She reads like 5 chapters a day! We also got to take her to the Visitor's Center in Idaho Falls and she loved it there. She is pumped for her baptism too! We get to have Elder Richards of the Seventy actually come to her baptism! He will be in town for the YSA stake conference and our Stake President invited him to the baptism. So that puts a little pressure on us to make the baptism awesome.. We can do it though! 

Sarah is struggling to tell her family still. She wants to be baptized but she is so afraid of her parents reaction that she just cannot move forward. Its a tough situation but I know that she will make the right choice eventually.

Transfers are coming up next week and Sister Gilbert and I are praying we get to stay together. We are seriously the dream team! We are both about in the middle of our missions so we are not brand new anymore and we aren't ready to go home either! We just love to work hard and we have seen miracles happen because of that hard work.

Oh! I almost forgot! We found a new investigator this week named Ryan! He is super prepared and ready to accept the gospel. We taught a really powerful Restoration lesson yesterday and invited him to be baptized and he accepted! 

I love teaching the message of the Restoration of the Gospel. We teach it a LOT so you would think that it would get old but it doesn't! I feel like every time I teach it my testimony of the Restoration and Joseph Smith and the Book of Mormon grows. 

I am so grateful to be serving here. Pocatello is the best! 

I love y'all so much! 

Until next time,

Sister Park