The Book of Mormon

Maria L. and her daughter Laura (14) and her 2 sons Pablo (9) and Matías (5) after church yesterday. They LOVE the Book of Mormon and we´re planning for their baptism at the end of this month!

Ice cream marshmallows with Luana and Franchesco!

President and Sister Rodriguez and their son! 

We went bowling with the hermanas! SO FUN! I got 2 strikes with a new move I call not trying and being spazzy. (there´s a video..)

 bowling with Hna Alvarez!

Betty D. and her 3 kids and 1 grand-daughter. As soon as the wedding bells ring, Betty, Leonel, and Diana will be baptized. It all just depends on when Eduardo can get work off so they can go to the court house!

Sandra, who we visit often to cheer her spirit!

¨¡HOLA!¨ was the first word yelled, quite loudly, as President and Sister Rodriguez burst into our conference! The conference was AMAZING. I am a witness of the power of callings. He wasn´t called to take President Willard´s place. He is a continuation of the work that was already being done. He is bursting with ideas, and it´s amazing that they are working. Both he and his wife were converted young by receiving a Book of Mormon. I made the comment of how we should start giving out the Book and he yelled. ¨YES! LET´S FILL SANTA CRUZ WITH THE BOOK OF MORMON!¨ 

On the way home, we chatted up the taxi driver and he said he wanted to read. So we made him wait outside the gate and we bolted up the 3 flights of stairs to give him the opportunity to read his very own Book of Mormon. That same day we gave one to a man on the bus and a night guard. The next day, the bus driver and his daughter. Another day, a man in the park. Then with 3 more investigators we found to teach in their homes. They all have the sincere desire to read the Book and know if it´s true. We gave them to other missionaries as a referral. Like President said, we know how many seeds 1 apple has, but we dont know how many apples 1 seed can produce.

In other news, Jesús S. is going to get baptized this Saturday! He´s 9 and wants to keep coming to church and reading his Book of Mormon like his older sisters, Mariela and Valeria, do. He is SO EXCITED! There are transfers Wednesday! Yikes. We´ll see what happens. 

Oh also, today I finished reading the Book of Mormon in Spanish. It is amazing. It´s true in English and it´s true in Spanish. I started reading it in November just by reading a chapter a day. How easy is that! So everyone reading this email wherever you are, member of the church or not. I invite you to read the Book of Mormon again. If you are already reading it, GREAT! KEEP GOING! If not, today is a great day to start :) The Book of Mormon is the word of God. I love the Book of Mormon and I love Jesus Christ of whom the Book testifies. 

Love, Hermana Park

¨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

More than eggs and a bunny

Sometimes old ladies we contact don´t want to talk to us because they´re making lunch, but give us some really yummy cake. We´re not complaining!

And then sometimes people yell at you about how there aren´t prophets and say that they wont talk to us because they believe in God, Jesus Christ, and the Holy Ghost ¨us too...¨ So we buy coke. 

 Oh Boliva. Gad is faithfull.

For our activity last week we made cuñape and I found a kitten and Hermana Petroff came back to Santa Cruz 

how to make cuñape! It has a bucket load of cheese that you have to mound and then roll into balls!

more pics with the hermanas when we made cuñape and ate a Pizza Eli´s interminable pizza, which we ate regularly in Tarija!

Family, friends, and fellow cat lovers,

We are finding a ton of new people to teach. We have been using these pass along cards of colors that have questions. We let the person in the street, park, or wherever thay are choose their color. For example, pink says how can I find peace and happiness? Green, how can I learn from my trials? Light blue, how can I have a happy marriage? And we shared one with a random guy named Marcelo. Then he asked if we could come over to read the Bible in English. We said yes, but never brought my English Bible. Sorry! But he´s very interested and asked about tithing, the bishop, how Christ came to the America´s, everything! He came to church yesterday and we were happy to see him. Now we just have to find a way to teach his whole family! This is just one of the many, many miracles we are seeing here.

This week is Easter! It´s interesting to see all of the Catholic traditions. I never understood much about how Easter is more than eggs and a bunny. But it´s about Jesus Christ. Dieter F. Uchtdorf said, ¨Because of the sacrifice of our beloved Redeemer, death has no sting, the grave has no victory, Satan has no last power, and we are begotten again unto a lively hope by the resurrection of Jesus Christ.¨ There are not words to describe my gratitude to my Heavenly Father for letting his only begotten Son, come to Earth and die for me, so I can live again. I have come to understand more about the word Savior. I found this poem I like:

¨Jesus will save you

just as you are;

Jesus will welcome you

back from afar;

Jesus will heal

sin´s pitiful scar:

Just as you are 

come home.¨

-John Runyon

I am so grateful to be preaching His gospel in Trompillo. I hope everyone remembers Christ this week and that all of the women reading this enjoy the women´s session of conference! Come unto Christ.

Love, Hermana Park 

#HALLELUJAH FOR NEW LIFE

With Hermana Huber!

Gardenia´s baptism!

 I was a little more than excited to eat KFC

From our zone activity last week when we ate KFC and ice cream! :)

Welcome back eastern time zone. Happy Bolivian Father´s Day this Saturday the 19th. I am done counting how many months I´ve been in the mission because it makes me nauseous. 

This week Gardenia got baptized! It´s sure handy that her boyfriend got baptized in July! ¨But if you dont get baptized, we arent getting married.¨ haha but dont worry! We checked that she has real intent! haha She´s cute. This same day I had to play the piano for the Stake Relief Society bday party and by heaven's grace I got to play Called to Serve! haha

One fun part of the mission are transfers! We didn´t have any, but my Hermana McDonald is in Tabladita now and she gave me an update that my drunk, but harmless, friend Dumbo, real name Pedro Leon, hasn´t drunk for 2 weeks and he wants to come to church. He can have new life through Christ! Just like we all can! Christ died so we might be. But the good news is that HE LIVES. I am so grateful to know that He died for me. and for you. Because He loves us :)

Watch here to find out how you and all those whom you have loved, can have new life throught Christ. Have a wonderful week! I love you all!

New Year, new you.

From the Christmas Skype with all the cool cats in my family, minus Scout.

December 28, 2015 

Yay! Christmas happened! I hope all could feel of Christ´s love :) I was SO HAPPY to be able to Skype my cute family. Best Christmas EVER. 

We had to be inside an hour earlier Christmas eve so we did the usual and ate the Greek pizza from down the road! :) We have to be in by 7 pm, two hours early, on New Year´s Eve! It seems like just yesterday I was with Meghan and Kristin Ferm at the YSA dance! Where does the time go. 

We had our Christmas conference with Presidente with all the missionaries in Tarija and Bermejo, so around 50 of us! We had a conference with him in the morning then we all sand songs and recent converts and investigators came! My zone sang "What Child is This?" and acted it out, and I got to be the angel! :) It was a little cheesy, but fun! 

Last night, the party next door blasted a remix of 80´s songs and older. We got to hear a nice rendition of "Another One Bites the Dust" while we tried to sleep! Also, we heard at least 5 times this week that everyone here has a sister in Virginia. So if anyone goes, I think you have some good odds of meeting a Bolivian! Gotta love Bolivia!

I was trying to think of a good resolution for this year, and here it is! I am going to do everything exactly how I think Christ would do it! WWJD. But really! As I read Jesus the Christ I am more inspired to be more like Him, do what He would do, say what He would say! 

I hope as you all come up with what you want to change and who you want to be, remember that it doesn´t matter who you were or what you have done. Because with Christ, we have a beautiful future :)

I LOVE YOU ALL and hope everyone stays super safe this new year :)

Happy Christmas Harry Potter

We decided to take a group pic with the less active member that we´ve been visiting when she invited over all of her friends to watch A Savior is Born! 

I´m honored to be a gringo (gringa)

We went to Crocan Pollo

Merry Christmas this week! I feel like Christmas 2014 was yesterday! 

We got our transfers.....AND I STAYED. This will be my 3rd transfer with Hermana Petroff, but I´m not complaining! :)

This week we were able to find a few new families to teach, the work is coming along, we are almost ready to split the stake in Tarija! Exciting things are happening! :)

I love you all and my Christmas wish is that everyone can have a happy time and just forget all your worries and only think about what this time of the year is for. Think of Christ. Think of the Baby in the manger. 

I LOVE YOU and merry Christmas! :)

Love,

Hermana Park