¨And ye shall know the truth and the truth shall make you free.¨

Hermana Huber and I this morning! 

Foooouuuurrrrth of July!

Soup, hot sauce, and lemonade. The great start to every Bolivian lunch.

The sun came out, we listened to the 4th of July cd from the MoTab (thanks mom!) during exercises this morning, and I´m still a missionary, so that makes this 4th of July a whoooole lot better than the previous one on my first Saturday in freezing Tarija. 

We have found a lot of new people to teach based on our obedience this week. Yay! Sometimes I feel like we are just dragging the same people like a bag of rocks, teaching, insisting, and not seeing results. So this was a week of finding :) We have seen a lot of miracles this week. We have been able to teach friends of members, part member families, and just whoever Heavenly Father wanted to put in our path! It also helped that it started getting warmer Tuesday. That´s why Santa Cruz is great. It gets extremely cold, but only lasts a few days :)

We were visiting with the member Sandra yesterday, the one I talked a bit about last week, and she is just completely hopeless. Yesterday we gave her He Will Put You on His Shoulders and Carry You Home from Gen Conf to read and as I testified to her that she is not too far away to be rescued I felt as if I were saying it to myself. I pondered back on my short 20 years of life and thought, why didn´t I realize how simple it is sooner? He is inviting us to come to Him, to partake of the happiness of the gospel and the relief of repentance. Why are we so stubborn to get comfortable where we are, sitting there, pouting like the younger Hna Park when she wanted a Baconator? GET UP and find Christ! Because only through the knowledge of His gospel and Atonement, can we be set free. Free from our pains. Free from our worries. Free from our past. Free to start over. 

I am very proud to be an American, a missionary, and a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints :)

I hope everyone has a fun, safe 4th of July! Light a sparkler for me! 

Love, Hermana Park

TRANSFERS AND MARCELO

Ciao Hermana Orozco! (at 5 am!)

Hermana Alvarez!

Marcelo´s baptism! Still haven´t figured out why NO ONE SMILES. This Marcelo is on the left. With the Cesari family that got baptized 5 months ago and helped fellowship Marcelo. Henry was SO EXCITED to baptize him and only had to redo it 3 times! Since the ward mission leader wasn´t there, there was a confusion about the baptismal clothing that was in the church, so they ended up wearing the dresses and it took ALL that I had in me to keep my cool and not laugh too hard. 

Henry and Mariela´s cute daughter Eduana!

our last morning of workouts together in the park!

blurry hipster pic from the micro

these trees are everywhere! So pretty!

pizza last Monday!

We had transfers! My Colombiana Hermana Orozco was transferred to Tarija! And my lovely Colombiana 2 came from Tarija! Hermana Alvarez is from Medellin! She is cute, 24, a convert, and has 6 months in the mission! 

I remember one time in my mission prep class in my YSA ward, our teacher told us that missions are hard and I thought, ¨psha! what Debbie Downer! The mission will be fun and I won´t have a care in the world!¨ But when Hermana Orozco left, I had to get everything ready for Marcelo´s baptism alone and felt like I was drowning! haha Wednesday the ward mission leader called and said he wouldn´t be there, our member fell through so we couldn´t visit Marcelo, every appointment fell through, just everything that could happen, happened and I felt awful! I prayed SO HARD! ¨Pleeeeassssseeeeeee let everything work out because he´s ready!¨ And somehow, everything just kind of fell together.

The baptism went swimmingly. Henry, recent convert of 5 months, was chosen to baptize him! He said he didnt know if he should laugh or cry or dance. He´s a little soccer player, so 3rd time´s the charm to get Marcelo completely under the water! But I learned that Heavenly Father knows me, loves me, and won´t let me fail. The church is true. We have the fulness of the gospel. Jesus Christ is the Head of the church and this is His work. I am proud to be a part of it.

Love,

Hermana Park