Bienvenida dìa santo!

The Relief Society Pres. from Guaracal, the neighboring ward, who made me a card because I had companion exchanges with Hna Alvarez and she accompanied us.

Group activity!

 the "Z" family made us fried chicken and we taught them about the Plan of Salvation.

17 months

Do you know who wrote the 10 commandments and how they were written?

The "Z" family told us they couldn`t come to church because they decided to sell food Sunday morning.Que va a hacer. So we passed by last night and Jorge told us that they lost money and decided that it`s a really bad idea to work on Sundays. His reasoning was because everyone goes to the countryside and no one is in town, but overlooked the reasoning that it`s a commandment from God. This week I came to realize that God wrote the 10 commandments with his finger. The longest commandment is to keep the Sabbath Day holy. He took the time to write 4 verses specifically on this commandment. If He took that time, it`s a pretty important commandment.

Yesterday during Sacrament meeting the Elders called me over and said, ¨Hermana Park. Did you know you are giving a talk?¨ ¨No.¨ ¨Well you`re giving a talk.¨ I had the short time of the youth speaker to ponder on what to say and it came back to my mind what we learned in January in the worldwide missionary transmission: if you don`t know what to say, talk about the Savior. I was able to bear my proud testimony on the Savior and His infinite love as He took everything voluntarily upon Himself, so we don`t have to suffer as much. We can receive His help. As we do our part, try our hardest, humble ourselves, and accept His loving invitation to go to Him, He helps us.

We do our part by keeping the commandments. :)

And more miracles and blessings and things I seriously never have time to write.

I love you all! Keep the Sabbath Day holy and send God a sign of your love by your actions this Sunday!!

Hermana Park

Random things:

This week has been really special! In our zone meeting they surprised us by calling up the other 2 sisters, Hna Monar and Hna Aspiazu who are both leaving with my group, and me to bear our testimonies. Then the wicked zone leaders made us all sing God Be With You Til We Meet Again!

We got the news that we can now eat fish - if it`s fresh!, lettuce - if it`s really clean!, and strawberries - if they were frozen! NEXT WEEK I WILL BE WRITING ON WEDNESDAY BECAUSE WE`RE GOING TO THE ZOO! :)

felicidad

the cake our pensionista Magui made for me!

with Magui! 

the special creamy chicken Magui made me

with hna Alvarez

cake from the Cesari family that they made me! 

After they shoved my face in it!

With them all after! 

with the Cañoto hnas

hahahaha with the cake.

They tried to shove my face in the cake, but it didnt have frosting, backfired! 

the Hermanas from Cañoto we live with came with us! They´re so fun! 

It got cold, so I was finally able to drink my mate. Buen Día is the best brand of weird herbs that you put water and sugar in. 

Valeria´s mom Sofia is one of our investigators. So we ate her delicious lomitos, or beef on french bread!

The Elders showed up at the pensionista´s house, they usually can't eat inside because there aren't men present, but she was feeding all the taxi drivers inside! So they went in and had lessons and ate with them all!...while we waited outside.


with Hna Huber!

I had the best birthday EVER. I was so spoiled. Everyone was incredibly sweet. After emailing, we walked down the road to the store and before we entered, we remembered that we needed to print off pictures to give our recent converts, and put my camera in and the man told me ¨hey, I cant see anything. I dont think your camera works.¨ Aaaannnd the joys of the mission, all 1500 of my videos and pictures are locked in my sandisk...but nothing could get me down on my birthday! 

Then we found 4 stranded kittens and took them to our pensionista, because not only is Magui a world renowned chef, but she takes in animals, feeds them, and gets them up to date with all their shots and gives them out for free. She made me a cake and a special lunch. Then later, The Cesari Family, who got baptized in November, had a special family home evening for me and then after brought out a beautiful cake they had made me! They sang me the special Santa Cruz birthday song ¨Hoy queremos que seas feliz..¨ then shoved my face in the cake (see pics) 

It was the best birthday I have had and I was happier than I have ever been :) (PRAY HARD that these videos of this wont get a virus in the next 6 months so I can show you all!) 

But anyways, enough about me. 

We had a COLD week. Everyone was locked up in their houses. BUT we had so many miracles yesterday! We waited for a micro (bus) FOR 45 MINUTES and it never came. haha But God has a plan, and we had a nice little lesson about the Plan of Salvation with a woman also waiting. Her parents died when she was 9 and her husband died too. I am so lucky to have my family. I know that my family is eternal. I have been carrying around the picture of Steven and Shelby´s wedding everywhere I go to show people my beautiful family that I will have forever.

Love, Hermana Park

The grave hath no victory and the sting of death is swallowed up in Christ

Her last photo with Grandma Park on the day Emily was set apart as a missionary, May 18, 2015

Well, it's never a good sign to see the mission president's name on your phone. But when the call came I knew what it was. Happy that grandma is now free from her pain. I was reading today in True to the Faith and I really liked the part that says "the only way to take sorrow out of death is to take love out of life." When President called he said "I know you've got a big day planned today, but you'll get a little more help from grandma today." 

One of my favorite scriptures that I have never been able to apply until now is in Mosiah 16:8, "But there is a resurrection, therefore the grave hath no victory and the sting of death is swallowed up in Christ." I know that grandma is so happy right now and I am so grateful to have the gospel to know that there is life after this! What a comforting reassurance it is that we have the Plan of Salvation. She was "received into a state of happiness, which is called paradise, a state of rest, a state of peace, where [grandma] shall rest from all [her] troubles and care, and sorrow." (Alma 40:12) I hope you all celebrate her life with applesauce cookies and Hallmark movies! :) 

It was a crazy Saturday after getting the call to have to plan a baptism! Mateo Choque got baptized! His wife is close, but Mateo was ready and didnt want to wait for her. haha He even said that he wished that tithing was more because 10% just isnt enough. It was a beautiful time and we did nothing. He was ready. 

It was a crazy week and today we are going with all 16 hermanas in Tarija to see a waterfall! So that should be fun :) I hope you all have a wonderful week, remember how much you are loved, and please eat turkey because there isn't any here. haha 

I am grateful for this opportunity that I have to be here and to be helping people know this great news that we have in this gospel. I am grateful for the hot sun here in Tarija and for my companion Hermana Petroff. There is nowhere I would rather be than here in Tabladita! :) I am grateful for my family and that we can be together forever. 

I hope everyone can say a prayer of only gratitude this week! I love you all.

Love, Hermana Park