LOS OLIVOS!

I dont like packing

 Last night with the hnas in Trompillo with giant hamburgers that I could only eat 1/4 of! (featuring my overflowing suitcase)

Jesus' baptism (with Hermana Alvarez and her new companion, Hna. Quackenbush)

Hermana Undurraga!

The call came Tuesday and I packed up my 4 transfers of Trompillo, with a few tears, and came to Los Olivos! My companion is Hermana Undurraga from Ecuador. She is extremely adorable and never stops smiling. I already love her! We have been able to find a lot of new families to teach! We live here in a big condo, 6 of us hermanas! The Elders lived here before and so all the door handles are broken and I got locked in the bathroom twice.

Jesus got baptized in Trompillo!

A sweet older lady who is a hair dresser named Ana Maria is preparing to be baptized on August 6th! And a family where only the father from Korea isn't a member was very surprised to know my last name. So we`re hoping that "Park,"  a common name in Korea apparently, can get us in the door with him!

My companion helps me know Christ more just by knowing her.

We are working harder than ever before.

I really love these dirt roads of Los Olivos.

Hna Park

TRANSFERS AND MARCELO

Ciao Hermana Orozco! (at 5 am!)

Hermana Alvarez!

Marcelo´s baptism! Still haven´t figured out why NO ONE SMILES. This Marcelo is on the left. With the Cesari family that got baptized 5 months ago and helped fellowship Marcelo. Henry was SO EXCITED to baptize him and only had to redo it 3 times! Since the ward mission leader wasn´t there, there was a confusion about the baptismal clothing that was in the church, so they ended up wearing the dresses and it took ALL that I had in me to keep my cool and not laugh too hard. 

Henry and Mariela´s cute daughter Eduana!

our last morning of workouts together in the park!

blurry hipster pic from the micro

these trees are everywhere! So pretty!

pizza last Monday!

We had transfers! My Colombiana Hermana Orozco was transferred to Tarija! And my lovely Colombiana 2 came from Tarija! Hermana Alvarez is from Medellin! She is cute, 24, a convert, and has 6 months in the mission! 

I remember one time in my mission prep class in my YSA ward, our teacher told us that missions are hard and I thought, ¨psha! what Debbie Downer! The mission will be fun and I won´t have a care in the world!¨ But when Hermana Orozco left, I had to get everything ready for Marcelo´s baptism alone and felt like I was drowning! haha Wednesday the ward mission leader called and said he wouldn´t be there, our member fell through so we couldn´t visit Marcelo, every appointment fell through, just everything that could happen, happened and I felt awful! I prayed SO HARD! ¨Pleeeeassssseeeeeee let everything work out because he´s ready!¨ And somehow, everything just kind of fell together.

The baptism went swimmingly. Henry, recent convert of 5 months, was chosen to baptize him! He said he didnt know if he should laugh or cry or dance. He´s a little soccer player, so 3rd time´s the charm to get Marcelo completely under the water! But I learned that Heavenly Father knows me, loves me, and won´t let me fail. The church is true. We have the fulness of the gospel. Jesus Christ is the Head of the church and this is His work. I am proud to be a part of it.

Love,

Hermana Park

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

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

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

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