Water balloon fight!

The hermanas in my zone when we went to the Casa Dorada! 

It is really pretty and is on the bill 20 in Bolivianos! 

 

My district, Elder Hernandez, Elder Palomar, Hermana Petroff, me, Hermana Paz, Hermana Cabrera!

 After the conference, 2 of the hermanas from Bermejo stayed at our house! Hermana Padilla (my former companion I had for 2 weeks!) and Hermana Logovii, from Samoa! I got to teach with Hermana Padilla again and it was just like good old times, 4 months ago!

We found a restaurant called XOXO that had buffalo wings! 

(Do you like the Louisville shirt I found here? haha)

This Wednesday are transfers! Just glad they weren´t last night! It´s scary because I have been here in my beloved area of Tabladita for a good chunk of time! 1.5 months in the MTC, 3 weeks in Senac, 6 months in Tabladita equals more than 8 months as Hermana Park! Still feels like I just landed in Peru. 

We are busy preparing Raquel for her baptism this Saturday! She has had an unbelievable amount of doubts and her husband wouldn´t wait for her because he wanted to get baptized NOW so he got baptized in November (Mateo!) And then she just decided it was time, but she wanted to keep it a surprise from the ward! So she had the Bishop announce it in Sacrament meeting at the end after Mateo gave his first talk on humility (which he rocked!) and she just smiled and the look on Mateo´s face was PRICELESS. So our recent convert will baptize his wife :) 

The weather is warming up, the rain is gone, so that means it´s time for carnival! Just 2 weeks away when we spend 3 days locked in our house! (hope my companion is nice!) But people are already starting the traditions. We´ve got people dancing with baskets of fruit on their heads, squirt gun fights, and best of all the water balloons. It´s just another reason I LOVE Bolivia. Yesterday we were walking down the street, and there were a bunch of kids playing, and their dad yelled ¨Look at the queens! Get them!¨(They use the word queen a lot, reina, just in every day conversation.) So we were running from a group of 10 kids under the age of 12 pelting us with water balloons! We´ve also gotten them thrown at us quite a bit, but these soccer players don´t have good arms! 

We had 2 wonderful conferences this week, Tuesday with Presidente with more preparation for Wednesday! The conference, that we got to watch in English! The leaders of the church spoke about how we can Teach Repentance and Baptize Converts. We learned so much. The things are SO SIMPLE. Missionary work is so simple. We over complicate it! I am excited to be able to apply all that I learn now, and in this next transfer! :) 

The mission is wonderful. Bolivia is perfect. The people are angels. And I hope everyone is reading their Book of Mormon :)

Love, Hermana Park

PS. Yesterday the stake brought in pop for the relief society and told us to all drink it as fast as we could so that they could return the glass bottles. From the stake, or a sneaky trick from another church to kill us all with poisoned pop?

The sun came out and I'm staying in Tabladita :)

Part of our area in the mountains 

We made peanut butter cookie bars but all we had to put them in was a frying pan so it looks like refried beans, but I promise it's not. haha

My companion got sick during our weekly planning and slowly fell asleep on the ground. #weeklyplanninggonewrong

My food on the airplane, because Bolivia always gives you food even when your flight is only an hour!

The sun came out for the first time in 2 weeks yesterday, so Tarija is a happy place to be! I also noticed that the stars really do twinkle here.

We had stake conference and there were SO MANY people there! It was wonderful :) Presidente and Hermana Willard came to talk and everyone loves them! 

Transfers went well! We got the call Tuesday night that I am staying here in Tabladita with Hermana Petroff :) We are still the hermana leaders for the zone! So that meant that Wednesday we got to fly to Santa Cruz for a meeting with President and Hermana Willard and all of the other sister leaders and zone leaders in the mission! I learned so much! We talked all about how we can be better leaders and it ALL comes back to love. And I love love. haha Because if we love God, then we will love the work, the other sisters, our investigators. EVERYONE.

I read The Tongue of Angels again this morning! My ponderize scripture is James 3:10 "Out of the same mouth proceedeth blessing and cursing. My brethren, these things ought not so to be." I would like to personally invite everyone reading this email to LOVE a little more this week and try to be as kind as possible. Our words have the ability to help or hurt. I hope we choose to help and speak as Jesus would speak :)

Here is some love to all of the beautiful people reading this!

Love,

Hermana Park

Tabladita

I love roller coasters!

Foto del Consejo de Hermanas!! Zona Guasalquivir

Well ladies and gentlemen, the time came early this transfer and the angel of emergency transfers fell upon me.

Here's a little history of my mission. The hermanas can only go to Santa Cruz or Tarija. There are many other areas that are small that only Elders go to. In the past these areas have been open to hermanas, but have been closed for about a year. Also, my ward in Tabladita is the only one in my zone with 2 sets of hermanas and 1 set of Elders. All others are 1 and 1. So I knew that they'd be bound to close up an  area, but I thought it would've been in the last transfer. So, they re-opened an area for hermanas in Bermejo, and this morning my companion, Hermana Padilla, went to Bermejo! Along with another sister from Santa Cruz, my first trainer Hermana Rivera (who only has a transfer and a half left of her mission!), and another hermana from our zone. And they closed the other zone of the hermanas, and Hermana Paz is in Senac now. Confusing enough? haha So my new companion is Hermana Petroff from Layton, Utah. She has 7 months in the mission and has been in Tabladita for 2 weeks. So we're going to split her area with the Elders and see a whole lot more miracles! :)So if that wasn't enough for you, Hermana Petroff and Hermana Paz were the sister leaders for the zone. Which means they go to Santa Cruz for meetings with Presidente and the zone leaders and have day long transfers with the other hermanas of the zone. But since Hermana Paz is going to be finishing up the training for Hermana Rivera, Hermana Petroff is still the hermana leader. And since I am her companion,  that makes me the other.

I remember when Meghan Hintze emailed me and told me I would love my mission but to hold on because it's a roller coaster! And was that not the truest thing I have ever heard! HahaI really enjoyed conference yesterday with the new Apostles who talked about how the Lord qualifies whom He calls. I am not at all qualified to be in charge of the hermanas in my zone, but I know that my calling is from the Lord Jesus Christ and I am ready and willing to do it! It's going to be crazy, but I found a scripture I really like in Doctrine and Covenants 122:7,9 "Know thou, my (daughter), that all these things shall give thee experience, and shall be for thy good. Therefore, hold on."We also had a GREAT lesson this week with our investigator Diego. The hermanas in my area have been teaching him for a long time, and so I was persistent to keep him. So we've been working hard. But things were getting hard. So I asked a friend on a mission in Chile for suggestions and he told me that we should have the lessons in the church. So we did. We went to the church instead of his room, and we went into the area with the font and opened the doors. When we opened the doors to the font that was the strongest I have ever felt the Spirit in my life! We left the room to get the TV and came back and Diego was just looking at himself in the mirror of the font. We watched the Restoration video with an Hermana from the ward and the Bishop. We have watched this video with him before, he has seen it over 5 times already, but this time was different. The Spirit was so strong that there was no way to deny it. During his closing prayer we kneeled, like always, and had him pray specifically, like always. But this was the first time he didn't ask to know if this was the correct church but he prayed and asked to help him be baptized in this church one day. This is why I'm here. This makes everything worth it.

I LOVE my mission. There are hard times, but I'm holding on. I am keeping my arms and legs securely fastened inside of the vehicle and experiencing a lot of loops, but it's actually really fun and I wouldn't trade this for anything! Hurrah for Israel.
Love, Hermana Park

P.S. We went to get ice cream last Monday and there were giant (tall) guys and that's just really rare to see here in Tarija! And being who I am, I decided to leave middle school and asked one of the guys where they were from. They were the basketball team for Bolivia!  There was one from the Virgin Islands, one from Serbia, and one named Howard from Charlotte, North Carolina! Who would've thought I would meet the Bolivian basketball team. haha Who even knew they had one!

For General conference..we actually weren't able to watch the Saturday sessionin English, and only saw the last few talks in the morning session because the connection wasn't working on lds.org, but luckily byutv.org worked! But we watched Sunday in English in the kitchen with 17 missionaries! haha it was SO GOOD. I love the new apostles already. And SHOUT OUT BYUI KIM B! hahaha Hermana Quackenbush and I were SO HAPPY to see our old President in conference!

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

The Tongue of Angels

 It was Matheis' 6th birthday so we brought him cake and had a FHE! Oh, and they made us this really yummy fried chicken, way better than KFC and homemade potato chips, so we're going to run Lay's out of business!

 When we found slushies! 

The time I put mayo on my head for the lice! hahaha thanks for the tip because I think they're gone!! 

the 4 of us in Tabladita before Higham left (cant remember which pics I sent and didnt! haha)

 the Cristo mountain

Good graffiti

When I gave blood for immigration (these pics are way old. haha)

Your weekly dose of music: The boy next to me is playing a song, not sure the title, but "I just died in your arms..." you know the one. It's 80's day!

Yesterday in Tarija it was the day of walking! No taxis, no micros, no cars! Kids played soccer in the busiest roads, everyone was late to church, it was just a beautiful day! :) 

I thought the mission was going great! And then we had interviews with Presidente and I feel like I am a whole new missionary! Elder Uceda is coming this Saturday to talk to us so that should be amazing! Time is flying and really can someone tell me how it is not May 28th right now? I was walking before, but now I'm running! Because time is ticking! There are people who need me. I am ready to find them! 

We had a good week! It got colder! There were emergency transfers again, which by the grace of heaven did not affect me again! haha But now Hermana Dolbin and McDonald are companions! How does that even happen? haha We were all in the CCM together! 

I was thinking a lot about the words we use. My favorite talk and I am so glad I brought it is The Tongue of Angels by Jeffrey R Holland and everyone go read it right now! The most eye opening part was a part from the Apocrypha "The stroke of the whip maketh marks in the flesh: but the stroke of the tongue breaketh the bones." We need to be so careful with our words! Everyone just be happy and nice to one another! It's pretty easy for me right now because I don't know any mean words in Spanish. hahaha But everyone who is reading this email, say something kind to someone else. Pray for the tongue of angels. Just talk to everyone as you would to Christ. "Even as ye have done it unto the least of these my brethren ye have done it unto me."

Have just a wonderful week! Be kind! Go out of your way to help another! This week we saw a woman carrying her groceries and a giant bag on her head and it fell in the middle of traffic and no cars stopped to help her! Be the car that stops! You all are lovely! 

Love,

Hermana Park!

https://www.lds.org/general-conference/2007/04/the-tongue-of-angels?lang=eng

I'm Higham-less

Matching!

The roof of the apartment

Hike to Cristo Montano

6 de Agosto

Last photo before transfers

6 de Agosto

Pizza at zone futbol game

pbj

Things are wonderful and the gospel is so true! Anyways, 

We had a 5 week conference with Presidente and Hna Willard this week for all us newbies and while asking questions I asked what we should do for 6 de Agosto because our pentionista would be there and he gave everyone permission to go! just for lunch. BUT YAY! We got to go and it was beautiful! Every ward was a different city in Bolivia! So fun! But unbelievably hot. hahahah We got new investigators from being there too! So it was really good we were able to go!

We tried to explain kidnapping to Hna Higham's companion from Guatemala and came up with Siesta de los niños. hahaha

Speaking of Hna Higham... We were just minding our business getting ready for bed after our nightly pbj and it was 10:25 pm and she got the call and was transferred to another zone in Tarija :( Very sad. My heart is broken. I don't want to know a Tabladita without her!!!! 

But probably my favorite thing to do is wash clothes. It is actually really fun and I will never ignore the tag that says hand wash only on my shirts because what a party it is!! I'm being serious. 

Yesterday the weather was really windy and then there was a giant flash of lightening and not even a second after was the loudest thunder I have ever heard! It was so cool! Then it rained for a good 10 seconds. hahaha But I enjoyed every bit of it!!!!

The dogs here are weird. Some are nice and some are literally Satan and will ONLY bark at us and no one else. I'm convinced there is a certain house where Satan really doesn't want us to go. hahaha

Oh, and I forgot to say I got 2 letters a few weeks ago, the announcement and one with a program and pics of Cora in it! Thanks! I hope the reception goes well this weekend! :)

Our investigators are fun and progressing so yay! One in Vicente and he is most likely going to be baptized this Saturday if we can find the time to teach him more! Yikes! And another is an old investigator for like 2 years Diego who is in his 20s and decided to drop his bad friends and come to church and activities! YAAAAAAY! Life is good. We had pizza today. I have learned sooo much not only about the gospel but about life and learned that God is so incredibly mindful of us and sometimes when we pray for help, He will answer through another person. Answers don't always come as expected. Also, that personal revelation is still real. The heavens are not closed.

Have a blessed week! Find someone who is having a hard time and help them! 

Hermana Park

Tango gozo en mi alma

Helllooo what an extremely quick week this was!

This week is the 6 de Agosto! Like the 4th of July here! They are having a huge stake festival and fingers crossed we get to go for at least lunch, because, well, our pentionista will be there. hahaha And she's from Paraguay so her food isn't Bolivian and it's good though! I just pretend my really creamy mashed potatoes were made with butter, not mayo! hahahahha Holy - is mayo a thing here. hahaha

Oh, so we found the band. Have yet to see them march. But I did march down the street to the beat because I'm just really a band geek at heart. But they're a bunch of elementary school kids!! And we figured out I heard her wrong when she said the band is with the "catolicos"... she said "collegio", or the school. hahahahahahahhaha hey! Its close! haha

Things here are really good! Getting better everyday! The hike was so fun and I hope that everyone looked up that Cristo Te Ama mountain in Tabladita in Tarija, Bolivia because the fact that we made it to the top is really impressive. hahaha It was really fun! The members are really nice! On the day of Steven's wedding I bought a big chocolate cake (40 Bolivianos or like 6 dollars!!) And we celebrated. We also made tacos one night, just for fun. hahahha Things are wonderful. I love it! I've never known that this gospel is more true.

I hope everyone remembers how loved they are and that they truly never are alone because Christ has felt everything and Heavenly Father knows and loves us perfectly. Don't forget to pray!!

Love,

Hermana Park!

http://www.boliviabella.com/independence-day.html



This is an excerpt from a letter to Aunt Peggy with a little bit of Hermana Park's daily schedule:

Wake up! Companion and personal prayer. Do exercise! We started running around the neighborhood this week! So that has been fun! Get ready for the day!
8 am Personal study!
9 am Companion study!
10 am We either go out to an appointment and come back and do language
study, or do "12 Weeks", which is a program where we watch videos and
read scriptures and practice teaching for the first 12 weeks of the
mission!
1pm Lunch at the pentionistas! She is a member from the ward and is
from Paraguay! so the food is a little different than other Bolivian
food, but its good!
2pm-9 pm Go to appointments, visit people, contact on the street!
Sometime in there we come back to the apartment and make a sandwich or
something if we have some free time! Then be back by 9 unless we are
in an appointment, then back by 9:30!
9-10:30 pm Plan for the next day, get ready for bed! Make another
sandwich! haha have companion and personal prayer, then in bed and
lights out by 10:30!!

Things here are good! We have a progressing investigator named
Vicente! He's around 50 I think and is loving going to church and
activities! So that's really special! Everything here is great! It's
basically the same as there! Same truth! We always have references,
but its hard to find them. "Maria Sanchez" is hard to find because
everyone here is Maria. hahahaha!

Emergency Transfers!

                                            Getting on the plane on the tarmac, woo hoo!

QUITE THE WEEK.

We had emergency transfers on Friday morning!! I was eating breakfast and we got the call that I was going to Tabladita and so I hurried and packed everything up and said goodbye to my Hermana Rivera and hello to my new companion, Hermana Holden, from Utah! She is almost done with her mission so very fluent in Spanish. So that is VERY HELPFUL. She is very sweet and patient with me, because she's been in my shoes! Also, my new area is beautiful! It's in the mountains and today we are actually hiking the Cristo montaña. which sounds like Christa Montaño. haha

Also, my new apartment has hot water, woohoo!, and I live with another companionship...HERMANA HIGHAM so what a party that is. hahahaha We had peanut butter and jelly sandwiches last night and it was the best thing ever. The little things. 

There is a marching band we can hear at nights sometimes in Tabladita and she said she thinks it has something to do with the Catholic church! Sure is no Rachmaninov! haha

For pioneer day they had a big stake activity, that we couldn't go to, but we got to see a video! And every ward dressed up like cowboys, or pioneers, and danced around. It's bigger here than in Idaho!

haha

Everything here is great! It was sad to see my Senac ward on Sunday since we are in the same building! I miss them!! But excited to be here in Tabladita!! Life is great! It's warming up! I am perfecting my scrambled eggs. Really, things are too good to be true.

Thanks everyone for allll of the love and support! You all are the bomb.edu. Read your scriptures. Especially in Moroni 7 where there is a good part about deciding if something is from God or not. Very interesting! I love you all! Someone reading this go eat chic-fil-a!

hahaha

With all my love,

Hermana Park