God is love

IT POURRRRRRRRED Thursday. Rain is fun especially when you are COMPLETELY soaked :) 

My pensionista Magui almost made me cry when she brought out chocolate cupcakes with chocolate mousse inside. My first Bolivian cupcake. She also made some canned tuna for us. The only fish we can eat!

I hope everyone had a happy Easter and all the ladies out there LOVED women's session as much as I did. I may or may not have cried during More Holiness Give Me.. But it was amazing! Every talk was on love and service. I´m so excited for General Conference this weekend.

The Easter traditions are VERY interesting. Starting Friday, none of the Catholics can leave their houses. This is part of their observance of Christ dying. They only came out around 4:00 to follow around a cross and re-enact Christ dying on the cross. All we saw were 3 teenage boys on crosses in the park, and walked a bit faster. Hardly anyone was outside (or inside...) of their houses this weekend. Everyone kind of disappeared.

As a result of Easter yesterday, no one was home. So we walked for at least 6 hours straight. We sat down on a curb to call a referral, then kept going! We had one lesson yesterday, but it was a beautiful lesson with Edith :) At the end of the day we were walking home and saw a tall, skinny man with long hair and a guitar. He gave us a thumbs up, then asked if we were Jehovah´s Witnesses or Mormons. He introduced himself as being from Chile and told us he´s visited every church and loves that we're spreading the word. He kept pointing at us, at his heart, then up and told is that GOD IS LOVE. 

Matthew 22:36-40 Master, which is the great commandment in the law? And Jesus said, Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind. This is the first and great commandment. And the second is like it: You shall love your neighbor as yourself.

A man mistook the name Hermana for Amor yesterday and called me amor (or love) Park. I want to develop such a deep love that my name becomes Love. I love this work and especially all the people that God has trusted to my care :) We are working towards getting a family married and baptized so they can seal all their 7 children together in the temple in Cochabamba soon. I love Bolivia and Heavenly Father for giving me this beautiful opportunity to be here :) God is love, so go love someone today :)

WITH MUCH LOVE,

Hermana Park 

Last photo caption: Well, it was time for me to chop off more than 12 inches. I donated it, so that made me feel better. It´s so weird to have short hair for the first time since I was 4. (You can decide for yourself if this picture is real by looking at the date Friday...)

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