adventures and peanut butter cookies!

First thing`s first, HAPPY BIRTHDAY MOM! :) 

If you havent noticed, Hermana Cayambe has glasses. We had to get her a new prescription this week and Derly took us Monday. Then Tuesday when Derly picked up the glasses and they had messed up her prescription. We got special permission when Derly had work off Thursday to return to the eye doctor. BUT they were closed and there is no parking in downtown Santa Cruz. So Derly said we`ll drive around for 15 minutes until they come back from lunch, because it`s a bit of a drive to the 4th ring. What happened is that she took us to see part of Santa Cruz, she promised to not make us disobedient and cross mission boundaries! She ended up taking us to see part of Santa Cruz that has mennonitas, the german immigrants who came here for the good soil. The mission is the first time where I`ve been called things for my skin color. Derly drove past them all and stopped and yelled, ¨mennonita!¨ at me and they all got confused and gave me some dirty looks, as if I had escaped from their colony in the mountains. We asked a man with a store next to the eye doctor and he told us her husband works around the corner. MIRACLE we found the other shop and got her glasses fixed. In other news a random little boy was running through the street screaming, ¨Yo soy Emily!¨ at me. Or Im Emily. Also Hermana Sanchez that I live with hid in our bathroom the other night and started running water in a successful attempt to scare us. Weird things happen in South America.

We visited the Zuñiga family again! Jorge was extremely excited to be able to read the Book of Mormon! He said he`ll read it all if it will strengthen his family. They invited us to have lunch with them this week :) Another miracle was with the mom, Graciela, of a less active, Gabriela. We went to search for Gabriela and she invited us in for the first time in a year. She wants to change her life and calm down her kids a bit. We are so excited to start teaching her again and hope that this can reactivate the cute red head Gabriela. Another of the many many miracles was with Lydia yesterday. We went to look for her son who we contacted and she invited us in and gave us PEANUT BUTTER COOKIES. She is an English teacher and once she heard that I know who Betty Crocker is she let us in and wants to listen to our beautiful message.

The mission is full of adventures and there are miracles every day. These people might turn down this offer now, but luckily it`s not a once in a life time offer. I`ll just put in my best effort and do my best now that today I reached 16 months. I love Bolivia and I love the Savior.

Hermana Park

many miracles in the mission of miracles.

Santa Cruz is great because you never have to pack away your cold weather clothes. In other words, it`s cold.

We had stake conference yesterday which was great, because Trompillo is in my stake! I got to see many of my favorite people from Trompillo to Sandra, the Bishop, to the newlyweds the Davalos Family, to my favorite Cesari`s and Valeria. I think the biggest miracle of all was Hortencia. We passed by her house to pick her up for the conference and she was cleaning because a visit was coming, but she`d do her best to come. Then something struck inside (hint: the Holy Ghost) and she came! Alone! She said she loved it! Her favorite part was she walked in during the part in the Stake President`s talk ¨And the punctuality is a big issue...¨

We have been working hard visiting just the cutest less active named Yoshelin. We love her so much. (She`s in the pic with a lot of people from the family home evening we had with her and another family and a returned missionary everyone`s trying to set her up with) She got baptized when she was 10. Her dad abandoned the family. Her mom went to Spain. And she got left with the Catholic grandma. Then a month ago, she just got tired of fighting and went to church. She has a 2 year old who`s also really cute. It`s one of those times where I`m pretty sure I knew her in the pre-existence.

Hermana Cayambe is really cute like a kitten learning to walk. She`s way better than I was when I started the mission. She is inviting EVERYONE to be baptized and knows her purpose. We had a lesson with the Familia Rivera. The dad, Nelson, said that he just didnt see the reason of being baptized if he`s a good person, serves others, votes. But what he didnt understand is that baptism is for the remission of sins. But now he understands :) By the power of the Holy Ghost you can know the truth of all things, because it`s not us who is converting him. We also found just the cutest family! The familia Ortiz. Gabriela, Alfredo, their 14 year old son Junior, and their 2 year old Jose. The have the realest of real intents to learn and do God`s will. Please pray for them!! and for Ximena who knows the Book of Mormon is true and wants to get baptized! All we need to do is find her husband to teach the whole family!

I love you all! The Book of Mormon changes lives! and Matthew 25:40 is truer than true. Have fun at the Eastern Idaho State Fair and for the sake of all that is good and holy someone eat a tiger ear for me!

Love, Hermana Park

Pics! Everything that happened this week with lots from the stake conference in the wind! Also included pics of Hna Cayambe to share with her family too.

well maybe the pics wont work because there are many kiddies playing video games right now so im not sure if the photos made it in! but I LOVE YOU!

So I`m training.

New companions!  Hermana Cayambe.

First haircut in 16 months, trusting in Ana Maria

The haircut with new convert Ana Maria

Saying farewell to Hermana Undurraga

All of the companions that are still in Bolivia: Hermanas Orozco, Alvarez, Undurraga, and Cayambe!

SO MUCH has happened this week. Here`s the rundown.

Well Hermana dreamboat Undurraga went to Senac! Where I started this whole journey! I was so excited for her, until we realized that she`ll be in Tarija and most likely, wont come back to Santa Cruz before I end the mission. We had a really sad goodbye, until her flight got cancelled! So she spent the night in the apartment, with us all, my new companion Hermana Cayambe, and also a special surprise of my old companion Hermana Orozco who`s in Tarija and her new companion. They came to Santa Cruz because she`s training. And so am I. That night there were 9 of us in that house.

Everyone screamed when we got the call that I will be training. Because it`s actually pretty rare for hermanas because there have hardly been any new hermanas in 2016. I went to the training meeting and we had a conference with Presidente and then he lined us up against 2 walls and called one by one who would be training who. And I am now officially training Hermana Cayambe. She is from Quito, Ecuador and just a basket full of joy. We have already seen so many miracles! From finally establishing a relationship with the Bishop, to Hortencia and her son Brian who came to church, to many new people we have met and will be visiting shortly.

Back to the 9 hermanas story. Well the fun part is, that Hermana Alvarez, my other old companion, now lives with us because she`s in Guaracal. So with the flight cancelled, the 3 hermanas that were going to leave for Tarija came to our district meeting! So I got a picture with all of my companions, who are still in Bolivia, in order of Hermana Orozco, Hermana Alvarez, Hermana Undurraga, and Hermana Cayambe! I really love them all so much. 

I LOVE YOU ALL!

Hermana Park

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 411 on everything Santa Cruz

Hermana activity of making crepes and skits with our 2 zones

elevator pic

 Salteñas and coke is the blood of Bolivia

 I went running in the morning with Hna Huber and came back to this! Happy 9 months! Hermana Orozco, Secce, and Canales made if for me :)

The hermanas in my apartment :)

Sorry my emails haven´t been coming through! hope this one makes it!

Here´s to all who have been reading my lame journal entry emails and who want to know what I´m actually doing!

SANTA CRUZ is wonderful. I actually really love it, even if it´s humid! Here are some fun facts:

1. We have hipermaxi. It´s a little smaller than Walmart, but way bigger than anything in Tarija. I was in shock entering in. haha

2. Rav 4´s in blue must have been on sale here. 

3. Everyone talks about how we don´t have a sea because Chile stole it from us. (Thanks Chile.)

4. I have no idea where they come from, but there are horse and buggies driven by teenage boys. 

5. Because Santa Cruz is flat, it´s very windy. The fun part is that the clouds move very fast! It´s fun to look up because there´s always a different cloud. That must be how the time moves so fast here! 

6. We live pretty close to a circus and e v e r y night at 9:15 they play the same Bruno Mars song from 2010. 

7. It is comprised by 8 rings. We are in the 2nd, 3rd, and 4th. So the ward has a little more money. Our ward mission leader bought us all BURGER KING in correlación and WE ATE THE LETTUCE. I will never take lettuce for granted again! Also he and his wife took us home, and I wore a seatbelt for the first time in 9 months. It was a beautiful moment.

We got a call Saturday morning saying that the baptism we had planned for Yolanda and her son Antonio had to be rescheduled for this Saturday because yesterday was elections. The law here is that you can´t have meetings of any kind election day. So better safe than sorry, we couldn´t have a ¨meeting¨ Saturday night. That also means no church yesterday. So we were on lock down yesterday. That will have been 4 days of February locked in!

Late news, carnaval was fun! We studied all morning, lunch, ¨personal projects¨ for 4 hours of writing a letter, reading conference talks, etc. at 5 dinner. Then read the missionary handbook for an hour, made goals. Watched the missionary transmision from January for 2 hours. Then planned for the next day. That was what we did for 3 days. Then did it again yesterday.

Everything here is wonderful! Hermana Orozco from Colombia says hello to all. We are working with so many families to get them baptized and Yolanda and Antonio will be baptized this Saturday sí o sí. (That is a phrase here that means for sure! But directly translated is yes or yes!)

I love you all and hope everyone is nourishing their spirits by praying and reading the Book of Mormon EVERY DAY and not being a Sunday Mormon, but every day of the week :) You are all wonderful and Christ knows you all individually and is waiting with arm outstretched to bring you into His fold. Follow Him! It´s tough, but worth it.

Love,

Hermana Park

9

FINALLY got reunited with Hermana Newbold in our intercambio! :)

We walked outside for 10 seconds to grab our lunch through the gate from our pensionista and got blasted with water balloons from a car! haha 

Happy Valentine´s Day. We got dumped on just walking home from church! haha

One thing I am coming to understand is the concept of time. These 2 weeks since I have emailed, 3 days locked up inside, and more importantly 9 months of my mission have flown by ridiculously fast. It makes me think of interstellar and how we can change the concept of time. On some planets, 1 hour is 7 years  to us. That would mean that my 9 months have been like 10 seconds. 

As I have put on my Hermana Park nametag, I have seen so many miracles. Here is 1 example from church yesterday. I only have about 5 minutes to practice before playing for Sacrament Meeting in my ward. And yesterday I didn´t have time to practice all 4 of the songs, and so when the 3rd song came,and everyone stood up for interlude, I said a little prayer and relaxed my hands. I thought okay. I don´t know the tune of this song, but I will just count it out like I did in band. 4/4. And I started playing, AND IT CAME. I played the song almost perfectly and realized that I had heard it one time. There are 1 million better piano players in the world, and without more practice I would never make it as an organ player in Sacrament meeting in the USA. But Heavenly Father KNOWS us all perfectly and individually. He knows our talents, our weaknesses, our fears, and He helps us. Because He loves us. 

Life is beautiful and thinking about reaching the halfway mark makes me really grateful for the 5 companions, 3 areas, a couple tears, a few laughs, and 9 months I have grown and changed to become a better disciple of Christ. 

I love you all and hope Valentine´s Day was full of LOVE. Because I love love :) 

Love, Hermana Park

PS.  Shout out to my cousin David, who was on the Today Show!

SANTA CRUZ

From the last activity in Tarija last Monday where we celebrated Hermana Trimble's birthday!

BYE Hermana Petroff! 

HELLO Hermana Orozco! (dont be fooled, there is another huge suitcase behind the other one!)

We got a call from the zone leaders Tuesday morning that said "hey hermanas. Just wanted to tell you that Hermana Park needs to start packing and we'll call you tonight to tell you where she goes." What a lovely call. haha I tried to work my very hardest on my last day in Tabladita and in Tarija! We celebrated by eating a whole Greek pizza Tuesday night. Then Wednesday morning every hermana from the USA that I came with and I flew to Santa Cruz! It was a teary goodbye in the airport, but they gave us a muffin and dried fruit on the plane, so it's okay. (And Raqual got baptized on Saturday and her husband, Mateo got to baptize her!)

The zone leaders said "Hermana Park, you are going to the zone Cañoto. Your area is TROMPILLO." otherwise known as Hermana Petroff's only other area! the first thing I said was"Are you kidding me?" Because when we came to Santa Cruz for training 3 times, we stayed in Trompillo, I have eaten with the pensionista, I knew some of the members, and best yet, I had gone on splits with my companion! The sweet, crazy Hermana Orozco from Columbia. She told me "I have 4 months in the mission. I am so glad to have been put with an antigua" or ancient. hahaha who knew 8 months makes you ancient.

But I really do love Trompillo. I dont know how many people came up to me in church yesterday to tell me welcome to Trompillo!! And how happy they were that I can play the piano! (even if it isn't Sister Hale status good!) Also, a boy came up to me and asked if I know Stan Cook, who was his mission president, and our ward misson leader went to Shelley a few months ago to visit his brother (who owns a restaurant in Idaho Falls called Argula Deli or something). SMALL WORLD! We got a surprise Fridaynight and the mission nurse, who is in a trio, moved in with us! So we are living as 5 hermanas! That will be fun this next weekend for carnaval. (The mission nurse, Hermana Huber, went to BYUI and knows Kyle Sargent!)

Special alert: We will be on lock down Sunday, Monday, and Tuesday so I'll write you all on the 15th! I LOVE YOU ALL and I hope you can enjoy the first day of the month of love by feeling of Heavenly Father's love for you and how He knows YOU personally :) Happy Valentine's Day!

Love, 

Hermana Park

misiòn de los milagros

A bittersweet day to hear that Hermana H. who was my companion in the mtc and one of my best friends, is being transfered to California for her health. But I´m really happy that she will still be able to serve! 

This week we went to Santa Cruz for a leadership council. While we were on the plane, there was a tour group from France and I couldn´t even talk to the 2 cute girls next to me. In the conference we talked about how the new goal for the mission is that every companionship has to baptize 1 family every month! We are working hard to reach the goal here in Tabladita and are seeing miracles! Roxanna and Jonny have decided to get married this month, fingers crossed, that it´s before transfers. Haha but that´s selfish of me and I´m just happy that they can get married so that they can enter the waters of baptism, as a family, with their 8 year old daughter Mariam. 

It´s beautiful here and we are getting more heat! I love having a hot South American winter/summer! I fall more in love with Bolivia, the people, and culture here every day. The best decision I have ever made happened almost 1 year ago when I went to the Bishop to start my mission papers! 

Thanks for all the love and support! It is a wonderful feeling to be here serving the Lord and knowing my loved ones are protected! I LOVE YOU ALL! Stay safe and enjoy the blessing that Heavenly Father has given us to be on the earth, in January, or 2016, where ever you are! :)

Love, 

Hermana Park