Gotta Grow Up!

Family, friends, and countrymen,

This week I "killed" Hermana Holden. And they mean it! It was a hard, sad day! haha but as a result of her being gone, I am the new ward piano player. Shout out to Gentry Carter for making me learn how to play for her seminary devotional freshman year!

My new companion Hermana Padilla is from Texas! She said she lives about 5 minutes away from the border, so that's fun! One of her companions was from Argentina, so she speaks like she is from Argentina because of her. haha Life is a joy!

We got to watch the women's session of conference, in Spanish! It was so good! I did like the cute little Utah girls singing though! The closing hymn in English was so beautiful with everyone trying to sing along even though they didn't know English. I'm excited for conference this weekend! I heard through the grapevine that there is a special room in English. We'll see! The ride back from the church had to be with a member since it was late, so the Bishop came and picked up pretty much everyone in the ward in his truck. Which resulted in me, my companion, and an 18 year old member Paolita in the back! Ah! haha Sorry dad!

It got cold again, then really hot. So I couldn't tell ya what season it is! haha

This week was good! Full of me leading the way though, so that was hard. The first day we went to seriously every appointment we made, every back up plan, every member, every less active, every investigator, and ZERO. Learned a lot about just being nice to yourself and knowing that you tried your best. I hope everyone can do something nice for yourself today! :) (my suggestion is get Taco Bell. Meal Deal #4 with a baja blast, but that's just me. haha)

I love you all and so does Christ!

Hermana Park

Welcome, Welcome transfer morning, now we rest from every care!

 Yesterday after church with Hermanas Paz and Morales who are in our ward and apartment

The camera went off too fast but this picture is funny. haha 

The district with a moving Hermana Morales who was running back from pushing the timer on the cameras!  

The actual district! 

Hermana Higham and me at the airport this morning as she left for Santa Cruz! 

Our zone activity last week where we played soccer and my favorite member Estela made us bbq! 

The Zone Leaders called last night and let´s just say that transfers are not my favorite and I was very nervous to hear the news! 

My new companion is flying in in an hour from Santa Cruz! She was supposed to come in this morning, but I don't know what happened. But at least we were there are the airport to see everyone leaving! Hermana Higham went to Santa Cruz and Hermana Quackenbush came here! Those Hermanas from the CCM will be my lifelong friends. (update! She´s coming at 1 pm now! So that means we´ll have taken about 6 taxis today! woohoo! haha)

My new companion is Hermana Padilla. Word on the street is she´s from Texas, but has Mexican parents. In other words, Claudia. haha So that should be really fun! Hermana Holden doesn't leave until Wednesday as well as Hermana Morales in my apartment who is also finishing her mission! So There are going to be 6 girls in our apartment until Wednesday. Pray for us. hahaha 

Welcome to spring in Tarija! And it´s extremely hot, so I am really excited for summer in December. But on the bright side, they have so many fruits in season now! Including the ever famous Park classic, watermelon! YAY! 

So my Spanish is still coming. I have now been out for 4 months. So it´s still coming. But this week while we were at immigrations for over 4 hours just waiting, I learned that my district leader was a cheerleader in Ecuador. hahaha He knew the words backflip, scorpion, flyer, etc. haha! But back to Spanish, our lawyer there with us from the church was asking about USA and how expensive everything is, especially college. And I said that oh actually my college isn't expensive because it´s in the church. And she said but oh your parents paid for it right? And I proudly said no because I had scholarships! BUT here´s where my Spanish abilities come in. I said I had vacas. I meant becas. Vaca is cow. I told the woman I didn't pay for college because I had cows. My Spanish gets better every day really. haha

I cracked the code of Bolivians. I thought "EW" Mayo AND ketchup on fries! Who does that! Ew! Then it hit me. Mayo plus ketchup equals fry sauce. They have fry sauce here. Can we please take a moment of silence for how amazing Bolivia, especially Tarija, especially my mountain area with a view of every Tabladita, is. 

I am really gad to still be here in Tabladita! Hermana Paz from Honduras will still be here too and she is hilarious! We were in a packed micro that stopped suddenly, so I fell into her and she said ¨Hey. what´s your problem?¨ hahaha hey! Who taught you how to say that! haha 

Yesterday the bishop got up at the end of Sacrament meeting and talked about the 2nd Coming and asked what are we doing today to prepare? If this was Emily one year ago (I feel weird because I haven't heard or said or seen my name in so long!) she would not be preparing for anything really! She´d be watching Pretty Little Liars. haha So really. Take a little step back and examine things. Is what you are doing now for the benefit of others or preparing yourself to stand before God again one day? Interesting. So everyone reading this, share this light with others! One of my favorite hymns is Dear to the Heart of the Shepherd. My favorite verse is the 3rd and chorus! 

Dear to the heart of the Shepherd,
Dear are the "ninety and nine";
Dear are the sheep that have wandered
Out in the desert to pine.
Hark! he is earnestly calling,
Tenderly pleading today:
"Will you not seek for my lost ones,
Off from my shelter astray?
(Chorus)
Out in the desert they wander,
Hungry and helpless and cold;
Off to the rescue he hastens,
Bringing them back to the fold. 

Who will you help Christ bring back to the fold this week?

Love you all! 
Hermana Park

Yay for the 7th ward! :)

My favorite pday activity is cleaning the bathroom! :D 

When we had an activity in the fair and gave people chocolate and Christ.

BABY BANANA! 

Sometimes random cows just wander around our area.

What we did to Hermana Paz's and Morales' desks while they were at sister leader training :) 

I FOUND Dr. PEPPER and it was 7 bolivianos which is just 1 dollar! It was unbelievably good. hahahaha 

I cant remember if I sent this graffiti or not but it's funny. haha 

One time a lady made us shishkabobs and I have no idea how to spell that but I took a picture and here it is. 

The view from my window on a rainy day!

It was a really good week! :) But even better to hear of all the mission calls in my 7th ward!! :) Congratulations to Destry, Kyler, and Claudia! :) Hurrah for Israel! 

I had intercambios with Hermana Morales this week! She leaves next week with MY COMPANION Hermana Holden! :( So next week I will be getting a new companion! :) But really anything could happen in this mission! haha 

We have our "noche de hermanamiento" every Thursday and this week we had a little lesson and then played a game where someone does a dance move while singing "Ali Baba y los 40 Ladrones". And you know I was all over that! So they had me be the head person and it was really funny and we laughed until we cried again. Then because Bolivia is cheesy the young men's leader (who is a returned missionary of 4 months) said "somos pocos pero locos" (we are a little crazy!) hahaha It's the little things.

We had a conference with Elder Uceda of the Seventy this week and I am really happy to be here in Tarija where there are just about 40 people so we could just have a small gathering and not in Santa Cruz with everyone and their cat and the other Santa Cruz mission! haha I really love Tarija!! 

Elder Uceda talked from 2 pm until 7 pm, then from 7:30 until 9 pm all the leaders of the stake came! But it went by REALLY fast and I loved every second! :) He talked a lot about personal study and really loving your companions and serving them. I was heartbroken to hear about how many of the Latinos dont get emails from their families some weeks. So thanks for always writing me mom!!! It was really good and his English is really good too! He stressed the importance of languages and us gaining a good accent and the Latinos learning enough to be able to listen to the voice of the prophet! Then he gave a major smackdown to the leaders and we got another in church from the Bishop yesterday about keeping the Sabbath Day holy! Because there are tiendas outside of every church here and so it's easy for people to buy things! But it's ONE day that has been set aside for us to rest from our labors and grow closer to God! Just one day is all He asks for.

There is no greater joy I have found than here in the mission! Seeing our investigators come to church or really feel the Spirit and see their lives changing is amazing! But it's not always a bowl of bubblegum. Our investigator D. literally dug out my heart with a rusty spoon when he told us yesterday that church was normal, just like any other church he's gone to. So we asked him why he goes and he said because we invite him.  Hermana Uceda told us to have our families connected with us on our missions and help pray for our people here! :) So, being obedient, you could include him in your prayers to listen to the Holy Ghost and the answers he's receiving about the church! Also, the C. Familia to continue to read! :) M. who just lost her mom, and the man who owns the pizza shop Hermano G., that his daughter will stop being bullied in school because she's tall! :( Thanks! :) 

I hope everyone can be able to feel of the joy of sharing the gospel with others and just do what Jesus would do! I have been reading in Jesus the Christ lately and it is so interesting! There is a part I really liked about how He was perfect and sinless, but he had the ability to sin. He was tempted and any person would have submitted themselves to the power of Satan and sinned, but Christ being perfect chose not to sin. He chose to do what was right. Interesting insight. I also really liked the part about how when Mary received news she was going to give birth to a baby boy that Joseph loved her so much that he would save her from any shame and humiliation even if it meant that he would be shamed in the town. Do you save the ones you love from unnecessary shame and ridicule or are they the first people we take out our anger on? 

I love you all! Help someone out! Be nice to EVERYONE even when you don't want to! :)

Love, Hermana Park

PS If anyone ever needs a cheering up just picture me talking in Spanish with a retainer.

The Tongue of Angels

 It was Matheis' 6th birthday so we brought him cake and had a FHE! Oh, and they made us this really yummy fried chicken, way better than KFC and homemade potato chips, so we're going to run Lay's out of business!

 When we found slushies! 

The time I put mayo on my head for the lice! hahaha thanks for the tip because I think they're gone!! 

the 4 of us in Tabladita before Higham left (cant remember which pics I sent and didnt! haha)

 the Cristo mountain

Good graffiti

When I gave blood for immigration (these pics are way old. haha)

Your weekly dose of music: The boy next to me is playing a song, not sure the title, but "I just died in your arms..." you know the one. It's 80's day!

Yesterday in Tarija it was the day of walking! No taxis, no micros, no cars! Kids played soccer in the busiest roads, everyone was late to church, it was just a beautiful day! :) 

I thought the mission was going great! And then we had interviews with Presidente and I feel like I am a whole new missionary! Elder Uceda is coming this Saturday to talk to us so that should be amazing! Time is flying and really can someone tell me how it is not May 28th right now? I was walking before, but now I'm running! Because time is ticking! There are people who need me. I am ready to find them! 

We had a good week! It got colder! There were emergency transfers again, which by the grace of heaven did not affect me again! haha But now Hermana Dolbin and McDonald are companions! How does that even happen? haha We were all in the CCM together! 

I was thinking a lot about the words we use. My favorite talk and I am so glad I brought it is The Tongue of Angels by Jeffrey R Holland and everyone go read it right now! The most eye opening part was a part from the Apocrypha "The stroke of the whip maketh marks in the flesh: but the stroke of the tongue breaketh the bones." We need to be so careful with our words! Everyone just be happy and nice to one another! It's pretty easy for me right now because I don't know any mean words in Spanish. hahaha But everyone who is reading this email, say something kind to someone else. Pray for the tongue of angels. Just talk to everyone as you would to Christ. "Even as ye have done it unto the least of these my brethren ye have done it unto me."

Have just a wonderful week! Be kind! Go out of your way to help another! This week we saw a woman carrying her groceries and a giant bag on her head and it fell in the middle of traffic and no cars stopped to help her! Be the car that stops! You all are lovely! 

Love,

Hermana Park!

https://www.lds.org/general-conference/2007/04/the-tongue-of-angels?lang=eng